By Maegan Carberry and Justin Goldsborough
By 2010, members of Generation X and Generation Y will make up more than half of the United States population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. News organizations will be forced to address the needs of these audiences or risk losing them to alternative media.
Although they share many social values and lifestyle habits, the members of Gen X and Gen Y are going through two distinct phases of life. An 18-year-old and a 34-year-old might go to the same concert on Saturday night, but the former is probably scheming to buy beer while the latter checks in with the babysitter between sets.
In addition to cohort differences, based on societal conditions as they grew up, the substantial age discrepancy between those at the upper and lower levels of the 18-34 age group is a significant factor in determining what these young people need from a news organization. This became evident in Milwaukee, Wis., in a 2003 case study of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Journal Interactive by Northwestern University graduate journalism students. The study found noteworthy differences in marital and family status, household income, content interests and responses to advertising.
The results of the case study are detailed below, along with their implications for the news industry.
By the Numbers
In the spring of 2003, the Medill School Media Management Project students collected data, in a telephone survey and an online intercept survey, from Milwaukee-area 18- to 34-year-olds. This broad demographic was divided for analysis into two groups frequently looked at by media companies and advertisers: 18- to 24-year-olds and 25- to 34-year-olds. The students assigned the Gen Y label to the younger group and Gen X to the older one, because in 2003 those age divisions were almost identical with the two generational designations.
Demographics
The telephone survey results illustrated that 18- to 24-year-olds and 25- to 34-year-olds are at different stages in their lives:
• About 70 percent of Gen X respondents were married, compared with only 21 percent of Gen Y respondents.
• 58 percent of Gen Xers had children, while less than half that number of Gen Yers, 27 percent, said they had kids.
• Gen X respondents had more earning power. Their average income was in the $35,000-$50,000 range, while Gen Y averaged in the $25,000-$35,000 range.
• About 50 percent of Gen Yers were students, compared with just 20 percent of Gen Xers.
Reading Interests
According to the telephone survey, 83 percent of the Milwaukee area's 18- to 34-year-old respondents read or looked into the Journal Sentinel in a normal week, positioning the newspaper as one of the most effective at reaching this audience. Still, fewer than half of the Journal Sentinel's young readers said the paper was "very good" or "excellent," according to the paper's 2002 Dieringer Reader Behavior and Demographic Study, leaving opportunities for improvement and increased readership. There are an estimated 372,500 Milwaukee-area residents in this age group.
When determining what a newspaper and Web site should provide for young readers, it is important to underscore that Milwaukee 's 18- to 34-year-olds share some similar social values and lifestyle habits:
• Generations X and Y both expressed high interest in going online for dining information and reviews, as well as for movie show times, in the intercept survey.
• Both generations sought movie ads within the previous month, though Gen X did so more often, the telephone survey showed. They also showed similar interest in attending music shows and reading arts reviews.
• Both generations expressed a high interest in reading about environmental issues, though Gen X showed more interest. Both also liked to read about outdoor activities and health.
While the above findings represent opportunities to boost 18- to 34-year-old readership, further examination shows many discrepancies between 18- to 24-year-olds (Gen Y) and 25- to 34-year-olds (labeled here as Gen X) in levels of interest. Some of the noteworthy differences were:
• Gen X phone survey respondents were significantly more interested in reading about parenting.
• Gen Y was significantly more interested in reading about dating, though the topic didn't rank high with either group.
• Gen X was more interested in reading about personal finance.
• Gen Y was more inclined to read about social issues.
• Gen X was significantly more interested in reading about local environmental issues.
• Gen X was more interested in reading about exercise and fitness.
• Gen X respondents read a newspaper slightly more often than Gen Y respondents.
Advertising Needs
Differences between Gen X and Gen Y – such as marital status and income level – played in their advertising needs:
• 60 percent of Gen X telephone respondents said they had made an ad-driven purchase in the past three months compared with 36 percent of Gen Y respondents.
• Gen Xers were significantly more interested in ads for electronics, travel, restaurants, sporting goods, clothes, furniture, and food and groceries.
• Gen Y respondents were more interested in ads for bars and clubs.
• Gen Yers were more likely to use both newspaper and online classifieds to look for jobs and housing.
Interpreting the Data
The graduate students used the results of the telephone survey and online intercept survey, along with pre-existing data and other industry knowledge, to form core premises about the 18- to 34-year-old audience and to develop the solutions presented to Journal Sentinel executives and staff. The conclusions were as follows:
* A strong Web presence is essential. In the online intercept survey the graduate students conducted with MORI research, 43 percent of 18- to 34-year-old respondents accessed the Internet every day. By comparison, young Journal Sentinel readers read or looked into the newspaper an average of about three times a week. Any recommendation the students made to the Journal Sentinel had to include a strong online component.
* Integration of print and online products is a must. The telephone and online intercept surveys indicated members of the young audience used both print and online products. The fluidity with which they moved between products called for convergence.
* Young readers need dynamic visuals. Members of the young audience grew up in a world saturated with television and now the Internet. Their eyes are accustomed to bold colors and graphics. Young readers associated the sometimes-stodgy appearance of the Journal Sentinel with older readers. Likewise, a history of storytelling rooted in television and online self-navigation means newspapers cannot rely on words alone to tell stories. Reaching this audience requires a special emphasis on art, photos and other design elements.
* Separate products open new branding and marketing opportunities. Many news industry leaders have opted to go this route, including the Chicago Tribune ( RedEye), the Chicago Sun-Times ( Red Streak), the Washington Post ( Express) and a slew of others. Instead of adding sections or columns to the parent product, separate niche publications for younger audiences can forge new relationships and spark readership habits. They open the door for edgier, youth-oriented marketing events, partnerships and sponsorships. For example, in 2003 the RedEye sponsored a float in the city's 2003 Gay Pride parade, hosted a New Year's Eve bash at a swanky club and drove a red van around Chicago to pass out vouchers for free rides on the city's public transit system.
* The newspaper should try to hire young staff members. Market research can only go so far in building Gen X and Gen Y strategies. Involving members of the target demographic in the newsroom and on marketing and circulation teams adds an intuitive quality that generates new ideas and enforces objectives. One Journal Sentinel staff member illustrated the need for this tactic best when she said: "Our youngest entertainment writer has actually been to a Beatles concert."
Building Solutions
The Medill research group, itself composed of Gen X and Gen Y members, decided the best way to capture the 18- to 34-year-old demographic was through the Internet on a daily basis and by print on a weekly basis. They developed two new Journal Sentinel products for two target audiences — Milwaukee24 for Gen Y and Your Backyard for Gen X, although they recognized there would be some overlap of readership.
Milwaukee24
The Gen Y solution was a Web-driven entertainment guide accompanied by a print component aimed at helping 18- to 24-year-olds in the greater Milwaukee area plan their social activities. Both combined a graphics-heavy look with offbeat content, catering to this generation's desire for more visually striking, hyper-local subject matter. The product's tone was casual, featuring punchy, magazine-style stories, such as which bars have the cheapest beer or a behind-the-scenes look at Milwaukee 's Summerfest celebration. It included stories that deviated from AP Style, such as a skateboarder's photo blog titled “Sick air dude.” Because newspapers are not core lifestyle brands for Gen Y, they must work, sometimes utilizing unorthodox methods, to make a stronger connection with this group.
• The print component was intended to run as a Thursday tabloid-sized insert in the newspaper, also distributed – at least for a time – as a stand-alone publication in popular venues for this age group (e.g. coffee shops and bars) and college neighborhoods. It was positioned to complement Milwaukee24.com and serve as a weekend guide with “go-do” information. Thursday was chosen because that is when the weekend starts for many in their late teens and early 20s.
• The online component, Milwaukee24.com , was designed to replace the Journal Sentinel's existing entertainment Web site. It supplemented content from the Journal Sentinel's print entertainment section, Weekend Cue, with content targeted to Gen Y. Also, JSOnline.com was dayparted, so that online programming evolved from day to evening along with the users' needs – to include a lighter, more human interest-oriented top story (often from Milwaukee24.com ) at night, when users tend to go online for reasons other than news.
Milwaukee24.com's daily, frequently updated online presence would provide an opportunity to establish brand recognition, loyalty and customer satisfaction, all of which would be carried over to the print product by using similar design, headings, content and tone. This similarity, as well as teasers, would drive interaction between the two platforms.
Your Backyard
The Gen X solution was an eight-page print section run every Friday in a traditional format. The online version of the section would be posted as its own segment on JSOnline.com . Your Backyard was designed to bring hyper-local news and information to Gen X readers through visual storytelling. This component had the makings of a weekend guide as well, but was designed to cater to members of an older age group, many of whom had families. The “go-do” information in this section included more outdoor and community-related activities instead of nightlife news. Friday was chosen because Gen X members in the study's focus groups seemed to prefer it then.
Your Backyard encourages Milwaukeeans to view their city as their extended backyard. The content was most often displayed in colorful, feature stories with many pictures, images, charts and infographics, rather than blurbs and very short stories, as was the case with Milwaukee24 . Your Backyard focused on Gen Xers' interest in topics like outdoor activities, social issues and family through five different section elements: outdoors, family, environment, community and news briefs of particular interest to that age group. Milwaukee's 25- to 34-year-olds showed moderate to extreme interest in all section topics selected. Like Milwaukee24, Your Backyard was designed to send readers to the Web, and Internet users to the newspaper, through refers.
Finally, most of the content produced for Your Backyard could be utilized that weekend or saved for future use. The content from this section would be stored on JSOnline.com as evergreen content — “go-do” information that users could access anytime. Evergreen content, such as how to access Milwaukee's best bike trails or beaches, would cater to Gen Xers' need for community activities and their interest in the environment, the outdoors and family.
Ed. Note: Maegan Carberry, 23, and Justin Goldsborough, 24, both earned MSJs from Medill in 2003 and were part of the Media Management Project that conducted the study in Milwaukee.
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