Life-Stage Segmentation Profiles

Portrait of the Middle-Income Youth

by Amy Rabinovitz

Overview

The Middle-Income Youth (MIY) represent just six percent of the population, but they are key consumers: under 45 years old, no children in the house, and a household income of $30,000 to $75,000. Forty-six percent of them are married, slightly less than the national average. Like the Upper-Income Youth, their money is their own.

Seventy-six percent have attended college, higher than the national average of 68 percent, and though they are politically more liberal than the average, 46 percent consider themselves middle of the road and 22 percent consider themselves moderate/very liberal. Only 28 percent consider themselves moderate/very conservative, the lowest percentage of any group.

Fifty-nine percent own their own home, far lower than the 78 percent average. Seventy-six percent are Caucasian, 10 percent Hispanic, 11 percent Black (African-American) and two percent Asian. Nineteen percent consider themselves multilingual.

Newspaper Readership

The need felt by MIY to “get the news every day” declined 8 points from 1995 to 2005, the same decline reported by the respondents overall. Thirty-two percent now feel a need to get the news daily. As newspaper readers, however, their newspaper habit has declined at twice the rate of the average respondent: 16 percent. Sixty percent of the MIY said they read the newspaper either the day before or the previous Sunday compared to 76 percent a decade earlier.

Sunday readership took a hard hit from this group, losing 17 points in the decade from 1995 to 2005: 67 percent to 50 percent. In deciding to buy the Sunday paper, 56 percent said news/features were key drivers. When it comes to advertising as an incentive, 30 percent categorized it as the most important factor.

Forty-three percent of the MIY who read the Sunday paper are subscribers, 43 percent are single copy buyers (compared to 33 percent overall), and 14 percent read pass along copies. They rank slightly lower than average in the amount of time spent with a Sunday paper (39 percent spend over an hour), 56 percent read it before noon, and half pick it up multiple times during the day. For this group, the big change in reading habits comes in their Sunday morning readership. In 1995, 64 percent read the newspaper Sunday morning. In 2005, only 49 percent did so. Their Sunday mornings media consumption goes to television (63 percent) and the Internet (30 percent).

Turning to the daily newspaper, readership has declined eight percentage points since 1995 across all segments but the highest decline was among the MIY – 17 points. Among the 38 percent who do read the daily newspaper, 35 percent are single copy buyers, 47 percent are subscribers. The time spent with the daily newspaper is lower than average (39 percent say then spend 30 minutes or more).

When those who read the newspaper were asked if they had a favorite newspaper section, the response was 1) Local News (23 percent); 2) Sports (21 percent); 3) Entertainment (12 percent); 4) Main News (6 percent) and 5) Editorials (5 percent). Thirty percent say they read the preprints, compared to the average of 38 percent. Like most of the people surveyed, they are likely to check local sales, read cartoons, clip coupons, check movie listings and check sports scores.

Eighty-two percent said that reading the newspaper helps to know more about their community, 76 percent say they feel better informed after reading their newspaper, and 62 percent agree that reading the newspaper “is a good use of my time.” Seventy-eight percent agree that “it is very important to me to be up to date on the news.”

Among non-readers, 21 percent checked newspapers for sales in local stores and 14 percent checked newspaper to compare prices for items they were looking to buy.

By 2005, 61 percent of the MIY reported they used the Internet in the past 30 days, slightly higher than the 53 percent average. Thirty percent use the Internet on Sunday mornings, an 18 point jump from 2000 to 2005. Forty-one percent use the Internet on weekday mornings. They have a higher-than-average amount of time spent online in the past 7 days: 14 hours. They rank average in use of broadband and wireless/mobile.

Once on the Internet, they have the highest use of e-mail at 97 percent, and high use of activities such as reading/posting reviews, online banking, reading blogs and downloading podcasts.
Their use of the Internet for local/community news is high at 65 percent (average is 57 percent). They are also high users for information such as sports scores (53 percent), lifestyle info (49 percent) and columnists/opinion pieces (42 percent). For their entertainment information, they skew high in using the Internet for movie information, theater/concert/arts information, downloading music, reading entertainment/celebrity news and for information on active participation sports.

Their use of the newspaper Web site is slightly lower: 48 percent compared to 54 percent average. When they go to a newspaper Web site, 63 percent cite movie listings or other entertainment information as the reason, the highest of any group. 79 percent use the site for local/regional news, 69 percent for national news, 50 percent for weather, and 43 percent for sports scores. 51 percent visited the newspaper Web site instead of reading the paper, while only 41 percent used the Web site in addition to the paper. They are the highest users of the newspaper Web site for ads for general merchandise (36 percent). A higher percentage of Middle-Income Young typically visited the newspaper Web site for 16 minutes or longer at 40 percent, compared to 31 percent of all Internet users.

Their use of the Internet for classified information such as home, cars, and auctions is about average. Forty-three percent use the newspaper Web site for job hunting information.

Forty-one percent use their cell phones for text messaging, and for getting information from the Internet. They are twice as likely as the average to send a photo or video over their cell phone.

Shopping

Sixty-four percent of MIY shopped in the past seven days, compared with 59 percent of the total sample. Sixty-six percent said Saturday was their typical shopping day. Forty-two percent also cited Sunday, the highest of any group except the Upper-Income Young. Six percent said they researched products on the Internet, 40 percent purchased something on the Internet, and 41 percent researched online and bought at the local store.

When it comes time to shop/research online, 74 percent use Google. Sixty-seven percent use the Internet to compare features of different products, 67 percent compare prices between stores, and 63 percent use the Internet to check store hours, phone number or location.

Advertising

Newspaper was the dominant source for advertising in the past seven days for most people, but not among the Middle-Income Young. Fifty-one percent cite the Internet as the media used to check ads, verses 43 percent who cite the newspaper.

Twenty-two percent said the Internet is valuable in planning shopping, and 41 percent felt the newspaper was valuable in planning shopping. For information on sales, they turn to the newspaper 44 percent, television 28 percent and ads in the mail 12 percent. Thirty-three percent felt the Internet was most up-to-date, 27 percent felt that way about newspapers, and 26 percent about television. Thirty-four percent believe the Internet is the most convenient advertising medium (compared to 28 percent for newspapers), and 50 percent said the Internet was most helpful for large purchases, vs. 23 percent for newspapers.

When buying from a computer store or cell phone store, they are twice as likely to go to the Internet instead of the newspaper. For appliances, office supplies, sporting goods, home furnishings, home building centers, and department stores they are more likely to go to the newspaper. Newspapers are also the reigning medium for shopping from discount stores, drug stores and grocery stores.

Fifty-five percent of the MIY have not used ad inserts, either from a newspaper or direct mail, in the past seven days, as compared to 49 percent average.

Recommendations

While the complete study offers no key recommendation for reaching Middle-Income Youth, the movement of these people to the Internet is obvious, as is their comfort with a mix of using the newspaper and the Internet for their shopping and news preferences.

They are not among the highest groups that use newspaper Web sites, but at 45 percent they are slightly above the average of 42 percent, and the strategies for developing Web sites should include the needs of this group.

Since they are also likely to research products online (66 percent vs 60 percent average), and are strong users of multi-platform devices such as cell phones, a strategy that allows for downloads, text messaging, and interactivity from the consumer to the newspaper (such as video and pictures) is key.

Return to Life-Stage Segment Profiles

Other Reports on this Topic:

Ethnic/Income Segmentation

Life-Stage Segmentation

For more information, contact Randy Bennett, NAA vice president, audience and new business development, at randy.bennett@naa.org.

© December 2007 NAA