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AP Uses Research to Appeal to New Generations

Posted by on 04 June 2008
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In a recent article at Putting People First, they write about the new efforts of the AP to conform to a new generation of news readers. At the AP, they'd noticed a significant change in the way the younger generations were setting out and consuming news. With their research, conducted by Context, a Baltimore-based research group, they found out that many times, the younger generations were overloaded with facts and updates, and rarely saw the background or resolutions to the news stories they read. With this information in mind, the AP set out to recreate the format of the newspaper in order to appeal to these younger generations. The research was linked to these facts:

  • News is connected to e-mail
  • Constant checking is linked to boredom
  • Contemporary lifestyles impact news consumption
  • Consumers want depth but aren't getting it
  • News is multitasked
  • Consumers are experiencing news fatigue
  • Television impacts consumers expectations
  • Story resolution is key and sports and entertainment deliver
  • News takes work today but creates social currency

It also led to the creation of several new tasks, such as the Top Stories Desk, where editors are asked to look at the big picture, and focus on content and what happens during the course of the event. There are also new content projects centering around entertainment, sports and financial news, for consumers who wish to have more in-depth knowledge about those categories.

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