The online offensive of US newspapers to attract younger audiences may not be working after all – the average visitor to newspaper websites, in fact, has grown progressively older in the last five years. The median age of total visitors to newspaper websites, a survey has found, in 2005 was around 42 years.
Visitors’ age composition has remained at a steady 10 per cent for the 18-24 group, but the median age has steadily grown from 37.9 years in 2001 to 41.8 years in 2005, a study 'Newspapers on the Information Highway' by Belden Associates has revealed. Since 2001, Belden has interviewed more than 134,000 users (including 38,300 during 2005) of 39 US newspaper websites of various sizes.
Though the American newspaper industry's online strategy is aimed at reaching users in the 25-34 and also 35-44 age groups, it is precisely in these age groups that the audience has been shrinking in the last five years, the survey found. The 25-44 age bracket still constitutes 49 per cent of the audience, and the 24-54 bracket as much as 74 per cent. The number of users in the oldest 55+ bracket, on the other hand, has been increasing gradually.
There is a likely seasonal effect on age because out-of-market males skew older, the survey pointed out. Smaller markets typically draw younger visitors (as do college markets). Local visitors are typically younger than the total overall visitors.
Less e-males now
The Belden survey explodes another myth – that of the sex barrier. There has been a steady shift towards a predominantly female audience. Overall, the male-female ratio has changed from 54:46 in 2001, 51:49 in 2002, 45:55 in 2003, 41:59 in 2004 to 42:58 in 2005. The ratio, in fact, has more just reversed. The survey noted just one notable variation – larger markets still show a higher usage by men.
Another interesting pattern was found by the Belden survey – news website usage by men and women vary with seasons. The percentage of men in 2005 went down from around 60 per cent in January to around 30 per cent in December. The percentage of women, on the other hand, went up from around 40 per cent in January to around 70 per cent in December. The survey attributed the higher seasonal usage by men to sports, especially American football.
It was also found that most site visitors live in the local area of the newspapers. About 68 per cent of those surveyed said they were primarily local residents – in other words they lived in the same zip code area that the newspaper itself was based in. Typically, 75 per cent or more of all site visitors were in-state.
There was wide variation in out of market use, and very large and “destination” markets typically exhibited the highest out of market use. Visitors’ locale also appeared to have some seasonal bias – especially for seasonal destination markets.
