Youth Switching to Cable, Internet

Network Campaign Coverage Increasingly Fails to Hit the Target By Daisy Whitney

A recent study on campaign news consumption sheds some light on where young men and women get their news.

Its conclusion: Cable is the leading source, and late-night talk shows and the Internet are also among the best ways to serve news to a young audience.

"Young people, by far the hardest-to-reach segment of the political news audience, are abandoning mainstream sources of election news and increasingly citing alternative outlets, including comedy shows such as the 'The Daily Show With Jon Stewart' and 'Saturday Night Live,' as their source for election news," according to the Pew Research Center report, released Jan. 11.

"It's accidental news consumption and it's really on the rise among young people," study editor Carroll Doherty said.

Only 23 percent of Americans 18 to 29 watch nightly network news for campaign information, down from 39 percent in 2000. About 23 percent read daily papers, while 37 percent watch cable news networks. Comedy shows were cited as a source for 21 percent and the Internet for 20 percent.

The number of young people who learn about the campaign from local TV news is down from 42 percent in 2000 to 29 percent.

While local news consumption has generally dropped among young viewers, reality programming has helped boost some late news shows in the young demos. The 14 NBC owned-and-operated stations, for example, have been successful in reaching young viewers through their late news following some of the network's popular reality shows.

"What we've seen with reality programming is that [it] skews young, so that's been a great opportunity for our news to skew young," said Steve Schwaid, VP of news and programming for NBC's O&O group.

NBC's late news programs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, San Diego, Columbus, Ohio, and Providence, R.I., all saw a rise in the adults 18 to 34 demo after last fall's "Average Joe." KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, for instance, saw a 43 percent rise in its Monday night late news adults 18 to 34 in November 2003, when it aired the reality show, compared with a year earlier.

San Francisco's KNTV was up 100 percent in the demo and San Diego was up 67 percent.

But ratings expert Jon Currie of Currie Communications contends that young viewers will continue to be siphoned away from local news.

"What [news directors] think a news program should be is precisely what news viewers don't want-two anchors in their 40s sitting around a table happy, talking about the car chase, doing weather at 17, sports at 22. You are not going to get [young viewers] because that's not a format that appeals to young people. I think they are really doomed to continually shrinking audiences. They are trying to make a better horseshoe for people who drive cars," he said.

Recognizing the online opportunity for a young audience, AOL and Fox News are actively courting young viewers on the Internet. The AOL News Election Guide, launched Jan. 14, includes, audio, video, magazine and newspaper content, catering to young viewers' interest in multimedia content, said Lewis D'Vorkin, AOL's editor in chief for news and sports.

Interactive Elements

The Internet allows more participation, which the younger crowd has come to expect, he said. On AOL's site, for instance, visitors can use the President Match interactive quiz to see which candidate best matches their views and presidential requirements.

Foxnews.com launched the Web page You Decide 2004 for the campaign in mid-January with features designed to interest young viewers. Younger users are specifically looking for streaming video, audio, slide shows and interactive applications, said Bill Billingsley, a Foxnews.com spokesman.

"The younger user is much more likely to seek out clickable features, and You Decide 2004 was designed in part to keep the interest of this younger user," Mr. Billingsley said. The site also has a feature to make it easy for younger users to register to vote. http://www.tvweek.com/newspro/012604youth.html