Much of early print
media research was qualitative. The first volume of Journalism Quarterly,
founded in 1928, contained articles on press law, history, international comparisons,
and ethics. However, quantitative research soon began to make its appearance in
this academic journal. An article published in March 1930 surveyed the research
interests of those currently working in the newspaper and magazine fields and found
the most prevalent type of study to be the survey of reader interest in
newspaper content. The June 1930 issue contained an article by Ralph Nafziger,
“A Reader Interest Survey of Madison, Wisconsin,” which served as the prototype
for hundreds of future research studies. The 1930s also saw the publication of
many studies designed to assess the results of print media advertising.
This led to studies in
applied research, and several publications began to sponsor their own readership
surveys. Mostly, however, the results of these studies were considered proprietary.
As the techniques of
quantitative research became more widely known and adopted, newspaper and
magazine research became more empirical. Wilbur Schramm (1957) first recognized
this trend in an article in Public Opinion Quarterly that reviewed 20
years of research as reported in Journalism Quarterly. Schramm found that
only 10% of the 101 articles published between 1937 and 1941 concerned
quantitative analyses; by 1952–1956, nearly half of the 143 articles published
were quantitative, a fivefold increase in only 15 years.
The reasons for this
trend, according to Schramm, were the growing availability of basic data, the
development of more sophisticated research tools, and the increase in
institutional support for research. By 1960, newspapers and
magazines were competing with television and radio for audience attention and
advertiser investment.
This situation greatly
spurred the growth of private-sector research. The Bureau of Advertising of the
American Newspaper Publishers Association (subsequently called the Newspaper
Advertising Bureau) began conducting studies on all aspects of the press and
its audience. In the 1970s, it founded the News Research Center, which reports
the results of research to editors.
As a major part of the
six-year, $5-million study, a news research center was set up at Syracuse
University to abstract and synthesize the results of more than 300 private and
published studies of newspaper reading habits. The Newspaper Advertising Bureau
produced dozens of research reports and conducted extensive focus group
studies. In addition, regional workshops were held across the country to
explain to editors the uses and limitations of research. By the time the Readership
Project ended, most editors had accepted research as a necessary tool of the trade.
Bogart (1991) presents a thorough history of the Readership Project.
In 1977 the Newspaper
Research Council (NRC), a subgroup of the Newspaper Advertising Bureau, was
incorporated with 75 members. This group was involved with the American Society
of Newspaper Editors in a circulation retention study and with the
International Newspaper Marketing Association on how to convert Sunday-only
readers to daily readers. In 1992 the Newspaper Advertising Bureau merged with
the American Newspaper Publishers Association to create the Newspaper
Association of America (NAA). The NAA continued the efforts of the NRC in the
research area by sponsoring a number of studies that looked at such topics as
attracting younger readers and how to use advertising to encourage newspaper
reading. The most recent effort of the NAA, launched in 1999, was a five year readership
initiative study that examines the relationship of newspaper content to its
readers. The Readership Institute at the Media Management Center at
Northwestern University supervised this initiative.
In 2000 the Readership
Institute launched the Impact Study, which gathered information from 37,000
readers and 100 newspapers in an attempt to increase readership. Results from this study
were reported at the 2004 Newspaper Advertising Association/ American Society
of Newspaper Editors convention.
The declining fortunes
of the print media have prompted new research efforts as traditional newspapers
and magazines try to assess the competition from the Internet, examine how online
versions relate to their traditional paper counterparts, and look for new ways
to improve their financial situation.
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