Teens read newspapers

54% of teens (ages 12-17) spend one or more hours reading a newspaper in a given week, according to a study by Teenage Research Unlimited for the Newspaper Association of America. This is good news for the newspaper industry given the recent press about the multitude of issues that they are facing. Attracting the younger audiences is critical to the future success of the industry.

However, how does the newspaper industry further reach and attract these teens? Continuing with the current "one-size-fits-all" newspaper doesn't seem to be the answer. This teen market requires a different approach based on their centers of interest.

In the study, the sections that were read by more than 30% of the teens were the following:

• comics (49%)
• sports (42%)
  
• entertainment (41%)
  
• advertising (34%)
• local & community news (32%)
• horoscopes (31%)
  

The cross-section of topics is varied (including advertising which is key for the business model). The bias here is that teens are reading newspapers that are not originally written for them. But we can see directionally in what topics they are more interested.

Another finding is that "older teens (15-17) outpace younger teens (12-14) with newspaper reading... 63% vs. 44%." Are there two distinct target markets that we need to address?

Niche publishing is a standard approach in other industries, such as magazines. Newspapers are starting to segment their markets and apply niche publishing techniques, but they will have to step up the pace if they are to make up the loss in readership and gain the confidence of new markets.