2. In this assessment we are focusing on the
goal of our project, which is to understand the
relationship between the millennial generation
and news consumption-- specifically to
understand why The New York Times is not the
millennial generation’s go-to news source.
Initially, to better understand the issue
we were facing, we began by analyzing our
main competitors. After researching The Skimm,
Snapchat Discover and BuzzFeed, we realized
that The New York Times is facing a branding
issue. NYT is perceived by millennials to only
contain hard-hitting, dense content, while their
top competitors have more variety in the news
they present. The Skimm, Snapchat Discover and
BuzzFeed all present information in a mixed way;
they have heavy news stories alongside lighter,
or more easy to digest news.
Moving forward we had see if our
predictions were correct. Our secondary
research lead us to The Media Insight Project,
conducted by the American Press Institute and
the Associated Press Center for Public Affairs
Research. The study showed us that college
student do in-fact care about news and current
events. They want to stay informed on all topics,
and prefer to do so on electronic devices.
This was an interesting discovery considering
that went it against our initial thoughts that
millennials only care to read entertainment-type
stories.
The insight we found in The Media Insight
Project formed how we structured our primary
research. Since we found that millennials value
heavy and light news topics, we chose to focus
less on the content, and more on how each news
source was being presented-- which goes back
to the branding issue we originally thought was
present. We found strong, recurring patterns
during the in-depth interview process we
conducted. Almost everyone we interviewed said
something similar to “I don’t go to NYT, but if
it’s on Facebook or there’s an article somewhere
else I’ll click on it and read it because I feel
like it’s a legitimate source.” This is a perfect
summary of how the millennial generation
prefers news to find them, instead of actively
seeking out information for themselves. News
sources can no longer rely on their reputation
to acquire readers. This also lends credit to why
sources like The Skimm and Snapchat Discover
are so successful-- it bring the news to you.
Our primary research re-confirmed our
secondary. Through our survey we discovered
that around 70% of college students prefer to
receive their news electronically, either through
their computer, phone or email. Going back
to the original competitors that we identified
through our survey, it was apparent that The
Skimm has the most committed readers. This
also supports the high number of students who
prefered to receive the news via email.
Understanding all of the issues NYT is
facing, we have decided to make a New York
Times Newsletter available to students 3 to 4
times a week. This compliments the needs of
our target market-- an on-the-go, intelligent,
multifaceted college student. This solves the
issues of news content and complements how
college students prefer to have news find them.
Students will have the opportunity to choose for
themselves the categories of content present in
their own personal newsletter. This mixes the
selling-points of all of our main competitors, but
now the content is coming from what students
already know to be a credible source.
Page2
Executive Summary
3.
4. Situation Analysis
Page4
The New York Times is one of the most
renowned and credible news sources to
date. Over the course of its 162 years
of publishing news it is now the largest
circulation of any metropolitan newspaper
in the U.S.-- second only to The Wall
Street Journal when it comes to national
circulation.
We chose to focus on The New York Times’
relevance to the Millennial generation.
Through our secondary research we have
identified the problem as a branding issue.
While NYT has proven itself as a credible
source, it is perceived by millennials to
be a paper meant for older generations.
NYT is being forced to find new ways to
compete with news sites like BuzzFeed
and The Skimm that are growing in
popularity among this generation. The
New York Times is also having to find a
happy medium between keeping the news
professional and making it applicable to a
younger generation.
It is a common misconception that
college students are not as interested
in the news as previous generations.
However, recent studies disproved that
claim. A collaborative study named “The
Media Insight Project,” done between
the American Press Institute and the
Associated Press Center for Public Affairs
Research, hoped to combine previous
quantitative research with qualitative
research to gain insight on millennials’ use
of the internet and their news gathering
habits. While this study was done on a
broad scale, and focused on news sources
as a whole, the information is vital to the
future of The New York Times because it
disproved the notion that millennials are
not reading the news. According to our
secondary research, keeping up with news
is the third most frequent activity that
millennials participate in online.
The Media Insight Project gave us insight
on millenials and their news gathering
tendencies.
5. To fully understand the issue facing
NYT, we also have to understand the wants
and needs of our target market. The Media
Insight Project asked millennials “what
are the main reasons you, personally,
tend to use news and information?” The
results show areas that The New York
Times can use to tailor their messages and
communication strategy so they can better
engage people within this age group.
“Stay informed and be a better
citizen,” “find it enjoyable and
entertaining,” “like to talk to people about
the news,” are all aspects of news that
millennials most enjoy- which is far from
not reading the news at all. So the problem
is not that younger citizens are not
interested in the news, it is that they are
not currently using The New York Times as
their main outlet for the news.
This newspaper is facing another
road block, and that is: people just do
not want to have to pay for the news,
especially the millennials. When finding
hard hitting news stories it is as easy as a
Google search, so why would anyone pay
for it? A study called, “Young People Love
News But Won’t Pay For It,” from PRNewser
says it best, “The big catch is that, while
young people are more than willing to pay
for news services and a majority spend
their own money on movies, video games,
cable TV, and e-books, they seem to view
the news itself as a public commodity that
should be free.” Their statistics show that
21 percent of young people have a paid
Page5
subscription to a print magazine, but only
16 percent subscribe to a print newspaper.
Recently, more traditional media
channel have been losing hold of their
viewers because of their failure to adapt to
the changing times. The New York Times,
however, recognized this problem and
decided that they needed to hire a digital
outreach team to generate more readers.
In this fast paced and ever changing
world, brands can not expect people to
come to them, no matter how prestigious
your name is. Rather, companies need
to reach out and convince people to be
loyal. The New York Times adjusted their
approach and expanded to the internet
to spark up some interest. To the left is
the Times’ new and improved look. The
New York Times is looking to appeal to a
younger audience by expanding its brand
to a sleeker, more captivating online look.
Their target audience young professionals,
or millennials, who are impressionable;
the ones who probably are not dead set
on a certain news outlet yet, but who are
perusing through any news source that
looks authentic and credible enough to
stick with. This audience wants to feel
unique and educated, so they choose
sights like The Skimm and Buzzfeed,
because it comes with an air of rebellion
against the mainstream news sources, yet
most of the articles mirror what The New
York Times is publishing.
6. Research Design and Implementation
Are you aware of the free print
news that’s available to you across
campus? If so, how often do you
take advantage of that?
“Never- because I don’t read the crimson
white and I don’t want to walk around with
a newspaper, I’d rather just get it on my
phone”
“I don’t because I never really think about
it.”
“No, I don’t choose not to, I just forget about
it.”
What attracts you to the news
source that you use?
“It’s mixed up with other things so that
way it’s not to heavy of information- you
can look at it passively and look at pictures
of cats or news and it’s super easy and
requires minimal effort”
Do you read The New York Times?
Why or why not?
“I don’t go to NYT, but if it’s on Facebook or
there’s an article somewhere else I’ll click
on it and read it because I feel like it’s a
legitimate source”
Page6
7. SURVEY
We chose to send out
our survey to college
students, since they
are our target market,
and received 182 total
responses. We focused
asking questions based
on main on prefered
methods of news
consumption.
Page7
In-Depth
Interviews
It was through the 10 in-
depth interview that we
conducted that we found
our key insight-- it is not
that students do not want
to read the news, it is that
they just need to the news
to find them.
8. Page8
Overview
In this section of our reports,
we used a mixture of research
methods founded through
our survey cross-tabbed using
SPSS. We identified different
target markets throughout
the survey and their specific
needs. This also provides
a basis of understanding
to later compare to our
qualitative data obtained in
the interviews we conducted.
Colleges and Frequency
of Reading
A wide variety of students at the
University of Alabama participated
in our survey, along with other
millennial at Universities across
the nation. While we have a
high number of college of
Communication and Information
Sciences students, there are
students represented from each
college.The college of Arts and
Sciences, Culverhouse College
of Commerce and the college of
Engineering all had large presence
in our survey data. Also, the
majority of those who participated
in the survey were females within
those respective colleges.
Through a cross-tabulation
of this information with the
question, “How often do you read
the news.” Arts & Science students
(along with C&IS students) read the
news most frequently. This category
scored the highest in the daily and
the 2-3 times a week category. But,
it is important to keep in mind
that C&IS and A&S students are
the highest population of students
we have data for in our survey.
Surprisingly, engineering students
have the highest percentage of
reading the news daily. Out of
18 students who participated in
the survey 6 responded that they
read daily, and 6 responded that
they read 2-3 times a week. The
engineering population was one
that was the most surprising to
us, because we had not anticipated
such a large percentage of those
students reading the news. This
could possibly be a potential target
market that is not receiving as
much attention as it needs.
Findings and Insights
9. Page9
The highest rated sources, as we
guessed, are online. Together
they encompass 74 percent of the
overall medium choices available,
while only 4 percent of participants
chose traditional print news. This
proves our initial hypothesis-- that
millennials are heavily relying on
digital media outlets for the news.
This makes sense for why The
Skimm is the overwhelmingly
dominant source of news.
Understanding how and why this
provider has such a huge impact
would offer NYT some insight and
give them a more competitive edge.
News Consumption
This is one of the more noteworthy
crosstabs. While it is not that
shocking that most of the
participants were not willing to
subscribe to The New York Times,
the breakdown of who is “likely” to
subscribe is very interesting.
One person said that even though
they never read the news, they
would still be likely to subscribe
to The New York Times. It is also
crucial to point that the people
who are consuming news the most
frequently are not subscribing to
The New York Times.
Since most people read the news
2-3 times a week, this is an
important target market to focus on
as we continued our research.
Radio
Newspaper
Application
Television
Email
Online via
Computer or Tablet
Online via Mobile Phone
News Sources and Preferred Ways of Viewing
10. Page10
Executive Summary of In-Depth
Interviews
We conducted these interviews to
receive deeper insights into how
Millennials, in particular
those belonging to
Generation Y, feel
about the news.
After interviewing
ten individuals
throughout
campus, we
combined their
answers and
gained insight
on the issue at
hand.
Throughout all of
the interviews one
of the main running
themes was that of “ease.”
Whether the interviewee was
talking about picking up the paper
issue of different news sources in
the Ferguson Center, or accessing
it online, it was evident that they
preferred the news to be delivered
to them.
Instead of actively searching for
the news, it seems as though they
preferred for the news to find them.
Snapchat Discover is something
that recurrently became part of
our discussion. Snapchat does
something very interesting with
providing a mix of news stories--
anything ranging from the latest
celebrity gossip to CNN news
coverage. But, not only is there a
diversity in the type of news, it is
also diverse because it is mixing
news with social interaction.
“Like even when I’m not thinking
about the news, it’ll just pop up and
remind me to go look,” said Joshua
Campbell, an interviwee, referring to
Snapchat Discover.
Focusing on The New York Times,
our team decided that it was
important to include a
question about paying
for subscriptions.
While it is a known
fact that cheaper is
better, we felt that
we need to dig
deeper into this
generation, and
figure out what
circumstances
affect their
likability to pay
for the news. They
all responded with
a resounding, “no”
when I proceeded to ask
if they were willing to pay for
subscriptions. “No, there are so
many free options available”
Natalie Boyd said in an
extremely assertive
manner. Other
students we
interviewed had
similar options
when asked if
they would pay
for the news.
“No, I can get
the news for
free,” said Isaac
Futrell, a french
and finance major at
UA.
To advertise to college students like
Campbell, Futrell and Boyd I believe
that NYT has to more actively
seek out their audience. While it is
established in credibility already, it
seems to be becoming less relevant.
Whether all of the interviewees are
watching the news on TV, Snapchat
or reading it online, it’s seen as
something that they are surrounded
by, but do not find themselves.
Throughout the interviews, there
seemed to be an overwhelming need
for accessibility and entertainment.
Easy readability and wit were
standards that these students
needed in their news source. Natalie
found this by watching certain
news anchors on FOX. Emily quickly
searches Buzzfeed for writers and
articles that interest her. Laura has
summarized news stories waiting
for her in her inbox everyday when
she wakes up. Regardless of what
medium they choose to obtain their
news, they feel as though it should
have these certain minimums for
them to even consider straying away
from what is of the norm. None of
the participants felt that print news
accurately captured the essence of
concise, humorous stories.
In order for The New
York Times to break
through to this rising
generation,
it needs to
rebrand in order
to relate. The
college students
I interviewed
view newspapers
as a stuffy news
source that
older people read.
This generation seems
to stray from tradition and
the “norm,” yet newspapers such
as The New York Times are very
conventional; it is something that
their parents and grandparents read,
and that makes it seem outdated
and irrelevant. In order to survive
this fast paced, constantly changing
world, The New York Times needs to
break through the mold.
“I like the Skimm because it is
written in a quick way that is
easy to understand and it is
funny. It is also in my inbox
everyday so it’s extremely
accessible.” -Laura Phillips
“I like to interact with the
new passively, and look at
pictures of cats, or choose
to read a hard-hitting story
if it seems interesting.”
-Katherine Thiel
11. Page11
Consumer Publics Profile
Jane Doe
(She is part original target market who
probably already reads NYT or something
similar to it.)
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Major: communication
Personality:
• On-the-go: too busy to actively seek out
the news
• Intelligent: wants to stay informed, but
needs quick and easy information to
digest
• Leader: Likes to be seen as an opinion
leader among friends
• Multifaceted: Wants diversity in news
consumption. She likes to see silly
pictures of cats, but also wants to have
knowledge on foreign affairs.
• Oldest of her siblings, so she’s really
mature
Activities:
• Likes to read fiction novels for fun
• Enjoys art and art/ music festivals
John Smith
(He is part of a target market discovered
through insights in primary research.
This newsletter will help him, because he
currently just gets news from social media
type outlets.)
Age: 21
Occupation: student
Major: Chemical Engineering
Personality:
• Likeable: extroverted personality
• Easy-going: doesn’t sweat the small stuff
• Informed: Likes to know what’s going on
in the world, so that he can talk about
them with his friends
Activities:
• Likes to go hiking/ kayaking on the
weekends
• Never misses a home football game
• Has a dog, and loves taking him on walks
13. Page13
NEWSLETTER
We have decided to make a New York Times Newsletter
available to students 3 to 4 times a week.
The newsletter will be offered on a free trial basis for
the first month, along with access to the online version
of NYT. This compliments the needs of our target
markets-- on-the-go, informed and involved, college
student, who is on a college budget.
This is the solution for students who prefer news to
seek them out. Students will have the opportunity
to choose for themselves the categories of content
present in their own personal newsletter. This mixes
the selling-points of all of our main competitors, but
now the content is coming from what students already
know to be a credible source.
MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION
Since the newsletter we would provide is
an option that students would have to opt-in for
themselves, we can measure the success of the
program through how many students register to
receive the newsletter over three months. We would
survey the rate of subscriptions over this amount
of time to see if students are choosing to keep
the newsletter. We can also see how students are
interacting with the newsletter and how many articles they
choose to read by measuring the transfer or click rate from the newsletter
to nytimes.com.
