| The Middle Ground
Published: October 13, 1998
Last Updated: January 12, 2000
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The middle ground consists primarily of ratings of how the news is delivered
- for example, ease of use, timeliness and depth.
Ease of Use
Newspapers do well on this score, both in terms of meeting expectations
and generally matching the perceived performance of the competition. But
the problem is that they do not have any positive differentiation from
competition. Also, while newspapers are seen as well organized and fitting
into your schedule, TV and radio are more likely to be seen as generally
easy to use.
When it comes to the general rating for ease of use, newspapers mostly
meet consumer expectations but fall behind the perceived ease of use of
the two electronic media, TV and radio. For organizing information, newspapers
fall a little behind expectations, but do better than the electronic media.
They match magazines. For fitting into one's daily life, newspapers again
meet expectations, but fall behind radio.
IMPORTANCE AND RATINGS FOR EASE OF USE
| |
RATED EXCELLENT/VERY GOOD
|
| |
EXTREMELY/VERY
IMPORTANT
|
NEWSPAPERS
|
TV
|
RADIO
|
MAGAZINES
|
| |
%
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
| EASY TO USE (AVERAGE) |
71
|
68
|
64
|
68
|
64
|
| IS EASY TO USE |
75
|
74
|
83
|
84
|
73
|
| ALLOWS YOU TO GET THE INFORMATION YOU WANT |
75
|
61
|
64
|
56
|
52
|
| ORGANIZES INFORMATION WELL |
75
|
68
|
63
|
56
|
69
|
| FITS EASILY INTO YOUR DAILY SCHEDULE |
69
|
69
|
65
|
78
|
60
|
| CAN BE USED ANYWHERE AND ANY TIME THAT YOU
WANT |
63
|
68
|
47
|
66
|
68
|
Timely and Value for the Money
Here, too, papers do well, but:
-
For timeliness, there is some shortfall against expectations and papers
do not do quite as well as electronic media. However, newspapers do make
a strong showing on allowing you to get the information you want.
-
For value for the money, papers meet expectations but do no better than
TV and somewhat worse than radio.
IMPORTANCE AND RATINGS FOR TIMELY AND VALUE FOR THE MONEY
|
|
RATED EXCELLENT/VERY GOOD
|
|
EXTREMELY/ VERY
IMPORTANT
%
|
NEWSPAPERS
%
|
TV
%
|
RADIO
%
|
MAGAZINES
%
|
| TIMELY AND UP-TO-DATE |
87
|
75
|
81
|
80
|
64
|
| GOOD VALUE FOR THE MONEY |
70
|
68
|
68
|
77
|
57
|
|
