The Media Research Project recently released a study of news consumption habits and perceptions. The study included respondents as young as 13 years old. There is a wealth of interesting information in the study, but I want to focus on one particular chart.
The question was: How often, if at all, do you get news and information from each of the following? By news, we mean any kind of news, including sports, traffic, weather, business and finance, politics, lifestyle, and education.
As you can see, the researchers cast a wide net for what a respondent can identify as “news.”
The chart below shows those responses:
Radio is in the middle of the pack as far as usage is concerned. Only 25% of respondents check radio daily for their news, and a whopping 39% NEVER check the radio for news or information.
Why is that? Certainly, the constant updates we see on our phones have something to do with this. However, is the lack of usage a systemic problem in what radio delivers?
There has been plenty of recent negative coverage about radio news—from the defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to the shuttering of CBS News Radio. Still, many great sources of audio news remain.
Part of the issue, as outlined in the study, is that trust in news sources has declined greatly in the digital age. Younger demos tend to rely on so-called influencers for their news, and those sources can be less than objective. Many also cite how the news stresses them out, so there may be an avoidance issue at play here.
Is the bigger issue awareness? Do radio news outlets need to do a better job of promoting their ubiquity, credibility, timeliness, and, most importantly, localism?
We have seen in Nielsen and, more recently, DTS AutoStage, that big news brands continue to garner healthy listening shares. The product is there. How do we get more people to sample it and, more importantly, make it an essential part of their media mix?
You can see the full study here.
