Researchers Find Consumers Using More Of Both Old, New Media

Ames, IA (AHN) - A four-year university study has debunked reports of the demise of traditional media in favor of new media, even finding a slight increase in the use of traditional media - newspapers, magazines, radio and television.

Iowa State University researchers did a four-year study of media usage and found that although there were large increases in the use of new media, such as the Internet and e-mail, there were also slight increases in the use of the traditional media sources.

That's good news for newspapers, magazines, radio and television. Jay Newell, an assistant professor in ISU's Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication and lead author of the study explained the study's findings.

"The way media saturation works is that people don't actually drop their old habits -- or if they do, they do very slowly over a long period of time -- but they create new habits very quickly," Newell said in a statement.

Newell also said his study focused on readership, not circulation. Circulation is the actual number of newspapers sold each day, while readership is the number of people reading each of those newspapers.

And according to the findings of the study, although one person might buy a newspaper, that paper is being shared, or read, by more than one person and the number of people who are still reading newspapers at the times of day they would be expected to read them has remained stable over the past five years.

That's good information for advertisers to have, Newell said.

Here are some trends the study identified:

• The overall consumption of advertiser-supported mass media increased over the four-year period, although the magnitude of that change tended to be small;
• Increased use of new media occurred at a more rapid pace than decreases in the use of traditional media; and
• Traditional media maintained or increased usage during key revenue-making day parts, such as morning drive for broadcast radio and prime time for television.

The study was done by Newell, reputable media researcher Joseph Pilotta, vice president of research for the consumer intelligence firm BIGresearch and a former communication professor for The Ohio State University; and John Thomas, a graduate student in ISU's Greenlee School.

Data was analyzed from a four-year (2003-06) biannual online media consumption survey of between 12,000 and 15,000 people, conducted by BIGresearch.

Findings will be published in the International Journal on Media Management in a paper titled "Mass Media Displacement and Saturation."