Nearly 4 in 5 adults are touched by the “footprint” of newspapers, according to a report issued by the Newspaper Association of America, using data from Scarborough.
The report (PDF here) emphasizes a few key points:
- Newspapers and newspaper Web sites (the newspaper footprint) reach 77% of adults in a given week.
- The newspaper footprint reaches 65% of young adults (18-24) in a given week.
- In a given week, the newspaper footprint reaches 66% of adults who have been in their home less than a year.
- The newspaper footprint reaches 76% of food shoppers with long recipts($150+) in a given week.
- The newspaper footprint reaches 81% of consumers planning to spend $35,000+ on a new vehicle in the next 12 months.
- The newspaper footprint reaches 82% of adults who have made any Internet purchase in the last 12 months.
In the market for a new car…
I find the statistic on vehicles interesting. Here at Medill, where our Integrated Marketing Communications department harps on targeted, relevant advertising, we often discuss the inefficiency of car and real estate advertising in newspapers.
Traditionally, newspapers provided the only blanket coverage of a particularly geographic area. On the other hand, however, not many people are in the market for a car or a home at any given time.
On its face, that statistic affirms the traditional wisdom: if you want to reach someone in the market for a car, the newspaper will probably achieve that for you. On the other hand, you’ll be reaching a whole lot of people not in the market for a car. Not terribly efficient. And this report doesn’t seem to speak to that concern.
What happens when that number slips to 70 percent, then 60 percent? Of the population of people in the market for a car in the next 12 months, I wonder how many of them can be reached through ads on Cars.com?
Matt Bigelow 