With the silly season (sorry, we mean presidential election) well underway we hark back to the late politico and U.S. House Speaker Tip O'Neill, who famously said, "All
politics is local." The same might be applied to the nation's top three media markets and the main newspapers read in each of those metro areas -- something to consider when
planning a PR campaign and looking to spread your message around in national publications. The numbers below suggest that may not be the best idea and it might be wiser (and more
cost-effective) to focus on one particular market (depending upon how much coin you can spare, of course) when targeting newspapers.
An examination of the nation's main dailies in the top three markets -- as well as the individual incomes among readers -- found that once the hometown paper(s) cross into
other regions, readership goes down dramatically. In the New York City metro area, for example, nearly 23% of the total population reads the New York Times Monday-Friday. In
Chicago, however, just 4% of the total population reads the Times compared with nearly 40% of Chicagoans who read the hometown Chicago Tribune. The pattern works the same way
across the country. To wit, just about 3% of the population in Tinseltown reads the New York Times during the week while a third of the population reads the Los Angeles Times
during the same time.
Another thing to consider: Readership in each of these markets tends to transcend individual employment income, as differences in income vary ever so slightly in the context of
who is reading what. It's not a question of how much money readers make but, rather, their allegiance to hometown papers.
|
% of Target (Comp)
total readership |
Individual employment income: $25,000 - $29,999
|
Individual
employment income: $30,000 - $34,999 |
Individual employment income: $35,000 - $39,999
|
Individual employment income: $40,000 - $44,999
|
Individual employment income: $45,000 - $49,999
|
Individual employment income: $50,000 - $74,999
|
Individual employment income: $75,000 -
$99,999 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHICAGO METRO | ||||||||
| New York Times (M-F) |
4.30%
|
3.40%
|
1.20%
|
3.50%
|
5.80%
|
6.10%
|
6.70%
|
5.00%
|
| New York Times (Sunday) |
4.70%
|
5.20%
|
2.00%
|
4.10%
|
5.50%
|
3.00%
|
5.10%
|
6.40%
|
| Wall Street Journal (M-F) |
7.00%
|
5.00%
|
4.90%
|
5.20%
|
7.20%
|
6.90%
|
12.00%
|
14.50%
|
| Chicago Tribune (M- F) |
39.60%
|
33.90%
|
29.40%
|
42.80%
|
32.80%
|
47.00%
|
44.40%
|
56.10%
|
| Chicago Sun-Times (M-F) |
35.40%
|
40.60%
|
31.90%
|
44.80%
|
35.00%
|
40.30%
|
39.80%
|
40.70%
|
| LOS ANGELES METRO | ||||||||
| New York Times (M-F) |
3.40%
|
0.90%
|
3.40%
|
3.30%
|
5.60%
|
2.10%
|
4.60%
|
3.40%
|
| New York Times (Sunday) |
4.10%
|
3.40%
|
5.10%
|
2.20%
|
6.20%
|
2.70%
|
4.10%
|
5.50%
|
| Wall Street Journal (M-F) |
6.20%
|
4.30%
|
3.40%
|
6.60%
|
7.80%
|
9.20%
|
9.60%
|
12.20%
|
| Los Angeles Times (M- F) |
34.40%
|
32.60%
|
37.60%
|
39.00%
|
40.50%
|
36.90%
|
40.30%
|
40.90%
|
| NEW YORK METRO | ||||||||
| New York Times (M-F) |
22.70%
|
18.50%
|
18.30%
|
19.10%
|
20.80%
|
25.10%
|
26.50%
|
36.10%
|
| New York Times (Sunday) |
27.20%
|
19.30%
|
24.00%
|
23.40%
|
24.60%
|
27.60%
|
35.50%
|
42.50%
|
| Wall Street Journal (M-F) |
9.30%
|
5.50%
|
4.60%
|
7.00%
|
10.50%
|
8.60%
|
11.10%
|
18.80%
|
| New York Daily News (M- F) |
27.40%
|
35.80%
|
33.40%
|
29.60%
|
28.20%
|
30.90%
|
31.70%
|
27.50%
|
|
M-F= Monday-Friday readership Source: Medialink Demographic Intelligence/Scarborough Research, Scarborough USA+, Release 2 2003. |
||||||||