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March 19, 2024

Broadcast Viewer Average Age: 51

There’s Old media and there’s newer media, and to some extent, they split along generational lines. The research is fairly clear: there are profound generational differences in usage of the web for news. Though baby boomers are taking to digital access, their habituated preferences for print still simmers, while the younger the reader, the more comfortable with digital access.

Now, we see a new report out of Baseline, a New York Times B2B company that tracks the TV and film industries, well-reported by the AP’s David Bauder. The numbers are eye-popping:

  • The median age for viewers at TV networks is 51.
  • Broadcasters’ audience “has aged at twice the rate of the general population during the past two decades.”

In those numbers, we see a couple of parallels for the news industries, and newspapers specifically.

Old, analog, one-to-many, non-customized media — whether broadcast TV or newspapers or newsmagazines — are a nice fit for those who spent decades with them. Given a choice, though, younger entertainment and news consumers are gravitating to digital sources, whether music players, smartphones, laptops, and increasingly Internet-delivered TV. They offer a sense (at least) of choice, of interactivity, of participation.

Second, industry analyst Jack Myers makes the point that advertisers have moved the yardstick as they target broadcast audiences, from 18-to-49 (years old) and toward 25-to-54 (years old) in terms of network television. That’s akin to newspaper publishers — and their advertisers, perhaps — now targeting older readers for their print products, charging them more for subscriptions and single copy. Segmentation is coming finally to the news industries, as they use older media for older customers and newer media for newer ones.  It’s a tough dance, more art than science at this point.

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