[June 22, 2010]

A new research study published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly examines general and robust constructs of news media brand personality that are applicable across multiple news media outlets, including broadcast and cable news networks, national and local newspaper, and news magazines.

Through a series of rigorous exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis procedures with the final set of 48 personality traits, the authors show that that news media brand personality is composed of five dimensions: Trustworthiness, Dynamism, Sincerity, Sophistication, and Toughness.

One of the significant contributions of this study is to provide news media companies a reliable and valid method to assess their brand personality.

As for the Trustworthiness dimension, for example, the Wall Street Journal was perceived to be the most trustworthy news media brand. It appears that the Wall Street Journal is known as a business newspaper, and uses fewer photographs and graphics than most other newspapers. Respondents may associate the subject and predominance of text with personality attributes such as “smart” and “serious” included in the trustworthy factor.

From a practical standpoint, the news media brand personality dimensions proposed by the authors can be helpful for media companies. In particular, news media companies can understand and monitor their news media brand personality structure to see if it matches the brand identity that they are developing in the crowded media marketplace.

They can also take advantage of the proposed news media brand personality constructs for diagnosing and improving their strategies to attract audiences and advertisers. The study therefore will help media companies fine-tune their image to survive the competition by better serving media audiences.

Baek, T. H., Kim, J., & Martin, H. J. (2010). Dimensions of News Media Brand Personality. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 87(1), 119-136.

CONTACT: Tae Hyun Baek, Doctoral Candidate, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia, taehyun@uga.edu; or Jooyoung Kim, Assistant Professor, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia, jykim@uga.edu.

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[July 20, 2010]

As U.S. newspaper publishers increasingly talk of building paywalls around their online content to ward off free-riders cannibalizing their print product, new research suggests that such efforts may backfire because most local users of local newspaper sites already are paying customers—by paying for the print edition.

A study published in the latest issue of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly found that two-thirds of visitors to local newspaper websites are “hybrid” readers—that is, they regularly read the print edition (and most of them pay for it) as well as the online version—in contrast to the remaining one-third of “online-only” readers.

Across a range of measures, hybrid readers were found to be more active on the local newspaper site (i.e., using it to search for a variety of news and classified ads information) and also more satisfied with the site’s offerings. These findings run counter to conventional wisdom that most online readers are avoiding the paid print newspaper because they can get the same information online for free, said the team of researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, led by Dr. Iris Chyi, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism.

“Thus, an online subscription or micropayment model would entail asking many local users to pay twice—or, if print subscribers are granted free access, it would mean publishers are chasing a minority of online-only users in the local market,” the authors concluded. “Moreover, these online-only local users are less active and are not more satisfied with the local newspaper site, making a pay model all the more challenging. In essence, in their pursuit of monetizing online content, publishers may very well end up alienating local users (hybrid as well as online-only).” Long-distance users, on the other hand, constitute a different market segment, which is examined in a different study as part of the overall research project (to be published in the International Journal on Media Management).

These findings were based on an analysis of data originally gathered by a newspaper research firm that conducted online reader surveys on 28 local newspaper websites around the United States from October 2007 to June 2008. Responses from 18,484 survey respondents were analyzed in the study.

Chyi and her co-authors—Mengchieh Jacie Yang, Seth Lewis, and Nan Zheng (see http://www.newmediaresearch.org/merg/)—have conducted a number of studies using the media economics perspective to challenge misperceptions regarding the economic nature of online news. Chyi’s research can be found at http://www.newmediaresearch.org.

CONTACT: Dr. H. Iris Chyi, assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin; chyi@mail.utexas.edu; http://www.newmediaresearch.org/

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[March 16, 2011]

[March 16, 2011]

[January 28, 2010]

Nontraditional online news sources are more likely to hire people with broad bodies of knowledge (“adaptive expertise”) while traditional news organizations more commonly seek out those with solid technical skills, according to a recent study published in Journalism & Mass Communication Educator.

Dr. Serena Carpenter, an assistant professor in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, examined over a six-month period 664 online media job postings on JournalismJobs.com to gauge whether online news media employers prefer employees with specific skill sets or with knowledge spanning several topics.

Traditional news media were still most interested in hiring new employees with “nontechnical routine expertise,” such as solid writing skills, working under deadline, editing, teamwork and communication skills, and Associated Press Style. About equally, however, they also were seeking employees with “technical routine expertise,” such as content posting and management, image editing, blogging, video editing, and social media knowledge.

Nontraditional online news media were as interested in nontechnical routine expertise as traditional news media, but less interested in routine technical expertise (perhaps because they assumed new employees already had such skills or that they could be easily taught). Instead, nontraditional online news media were significantly more interested in hiring employees with adaptive expertise, such as knowledge outside journalism/mass communication, creativity, independent and critical thinking, leadership, and problem-solving abilities.

Regardless of their preferences, the job postings for traditional and nontraditional online news sources expressed interest in employees with some expertise in both areas, suggesting that teaching specific and broad knowledge areas should each have a place in the journalism and mass communication curriculum.

The study appears in the Autumn 2009 issue of Journalism & Mass Communication Educator.

CONTACT: Serena Carpenter, Assistant Professor, Arizona State University, Serena.Carpenter@asu.edu.

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