Engaging the Audience

A second important weakness for the newspaper industry is relatively weak performance on reader engagement. Television, radio and magazines all score higher on reader engagement. Interestingly, magazines enjoy a lead by a narrow margin. The high scores of magazines suggests that print can indeed have a powerful pull on readers.

Depth/Seriousness of Purpose

None of the media match audience expectations for depth or seriousness of purpose. Magazines have a slight edge over newspapers in this area, which in turn have an edge over broadcast. Here again the leadership position of magazines suggests that newspapers should be able to capitalize on the advantages inherent in a print medium and develop a stronger reputation for depth and seriousness of purpose.

Apart from local news, newspapers fall somewhat short of audience expectations for news content, particularly for weather coverage and investigative reporting. Television and radio have an enormous lead for weather coverage. Television also has the lead for world and national news.

Television also enjoys an enormous advantage for being most relied upon for weather and world and national news.

Business/Finance-Related

Newspapers have an edge here, but their position is precarious. Newspapers generally meet expectations for these topics, with the important exception of science and technology, where they lag behind what the public wants. Overall, newspapers are rated much better than radio. But there is only a modest lead against TV and magazines and most of this is driven by newspapers' strong ratings for local business coverage. So:

• For science and technology, newspapers fall behind TV and magazines. The same is true for national business news.
• For personal finance/investing, newspapers tie magazines.

"Connecting" With The Audience

Americans place less importance on a personal connection with the media than on many other attributes. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that television is much more likely to spark emotions, stir the imagination, and surprise its audience.

Indeed, newspapers generally fall behind all other major media, even the print medium of magazines.

Enjoyable and Relaxing

In addition to being less likely to have established a personal "connection" with its readers, newspapers are less likely to be seen as relaxing or enjoyable and entertaining. Once again the results suggest that print media are not the problem, for magazines perform quite well.

Other Features

While newspapers do quite well on entertainment, in other feature areas this is not the case. Particularly notable is health and fitness - a subject of widespread interest but poor performance among newspapers.