DECODE BLOG

Media guru Rupert Murdoch (owner of Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and a plethora of newspapers under his News Corporation mantle) yesterday re-launched a firestorm by announcing that his company will start charging for online access to its news content. It’s a tactic competitor Associated Press has openly considered as well. The New York Times has a helpful roundup of what media watchers are saying.

For young news and media consumers, this remains an interesting moment in time. The easy parallel is that of the music industry’s attempts to fight off online piracy through a variety of online music sales models. Despite the endless speculation, and some notable successes (Itunes), nothing seems to have worked the way the music industry wanted it.

It’s difficult to predict how well Murdoch’s attempts will work, especially with young people. If the music industry has so much trouble convincing people to pay $1 for a song they can listen to over and over again, how will they convince consumers to subscribe to something they’ll likely only read once?

Aside from the general problem about a lack of a viable advertising model for news content creators, our Youth Media DNA studies last year showed that young people didn’t seem to understand the unique function of newspaper-style reporting vs. that of other media. Without that understanding, it’s difficult for newspaper content providers to distinguish themselves, especially online, where the content created by a TV station looks the same as that provided by a newspaper. Compare how CTV covered recent jobless figures with the Canadian Press article on the Toronto Star.

That, coupled with the fact that the objective-style reporting is now easily co-opted and repackaged into snarky forms by aggregators is also problematic, and not only for the newspaper industry.

How then to convince young readers as to necessity of a news gathering organization and the economic model that supports it? News Corp appears to be giving up on this front. We’ll see how strong that arm is.

Samir Khan Citizen, Generation X, Generation Y media, News, Newspapers

Robert’s response published in The Mark.

Nexus Attitudes, Generation Y, Youth Trends media, Technology

(note: this is in response to Morgan Stanley intern Matthew Robson’s article on teenagers and media usage)

Dear Matthew,

For the last few months I’ve been working as an intern at DECODE and have spent a lot of time looking at the media habits of young people in the UK. When I came across your report I was very impressed by how well you had managed to capture and explain some of the key areas that I have recently become familiar with. I am pleased that you got the opportunity to be published as your observations have opened up the discussion on youth media habits.

When I first started at DECODE I was surprised that so many of the assumptions I held were not represented when looking at a broader view of the population. After reading your report I was interested to explore how inline our data was with your observations. I am also a few years older so wanted to see what we could discover if we added my experience to your insights to build up a more developed picture.

The idea that young people, particularly teens, don’t read newspapers is one that has been inscribed in folklore. That 39% of 15-18 year olds report reading a paid for newspaper at least once a week is something of a shock.

Your observation that most teens are heavily active on social networking is also one that is also shared by many. I was surprised when the data revealed that almost 40% of teens use social networking sites less than once a week.

I was interested to discover that radio is more popular than we both assumed, as 54% of teens report listening to the radio at least once a week. I was also surprised to find that brands such as the BBC had a higher approval rating than other channels specifically targeted at teens, with 53% of teens having particularly positive feelings about the BBC.

You were definitely right that music is popular amongst young people. Our data shows that 78% of teenagers say that music is a particular interest to them. The data regarding music downloading seems to refute common assumptions that paying for music is a thing of the past. We are apparently a more honest bunch than is often made out. Our data shows that a majority of teenagers report paying for music most of the time.

The data supports your observation that young people visit the cinema quite often, as 67% of teens go to the cinema at least once a month.

I hope these insights can add to your understanding of the media and internet habits of young people in the UK. I wanted to show how the data can help develop a greater understanding of teenage behavior. Most importantly, I was inspired to support the precedent you have set that when it comes to understanding young people, who better to ask than the intern.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Doherty.

(These insights are drawn from a report produced by DECODE as a response to Matthew’s observations into teenage media and internet consumption in the UK)

Ben Doherty Generation Y, United Kingdom, Youth Trends Internet, media, Music, Social Networking, Technology, Television

Hats off to Morgan Stanley and Matthew Robson. With more than 90% of all coverage about teenagers and youth negative, it’s refreshing to see a global firm put a very young, smart intern front and centre. Well done. My company was born the same year as Matthew and we have spent the better part of the past fifteen years decoding young people in various parts of the world. We recently completed a study of 1000 British young people attitudes toward media and the Internet. Based on this knowledge I would like to offer these eight additional points of context to Mr. Robson’s excellent report.

1. The concept of understanding ‘teenagers’ from is flawed the start. 13-19 year olds as a group cross over a few levels of schooling and as most 13 and 19 year olds will tell you there is a big gap in life experience. Key transitions like driving, legal drinking, jobs and voting often split this group into at least two realities. Each transition has an impact on media behavior.

2. Don’t underestimate the significance gender plays at this stage of life. Years ago Calvin Klein launched CK1 cologne to meet the growing trend of androgyny among young people. The pendulum has definitely swung back especially in media use.

3. Advertising does work. It just has to be thoughtful, disruptive (usually means funny, but not always) and well positioned. Rarely do advertisers get all three of these right, so the generation born with the remote finds it natural to look for a better option. Young people have always been skeptical towards advertising, because they are the group most often manipulated.

4. Bravo BBC. You are proof that traditional brands can learn new tricks. Public networks worldwide take note. The iPlayer was a brilliant move to bring in the next generation on their terms. It also positioned the BBC second, just behind Google in DECODE’s youth brand rankings in the UK.

5. “Free for all” is certainly a youth rallying cry. To some degree it always has been, but now it’s more the expected norm. Perception and reality are worth noting. Bolt-ons, surprises, access, are a starting point not a value added service. Television and the Internet are rarely free. Someone else pays for it. Even free wi-fi at McDonalds comes with a side of chips.

6. I  don’t believe the DJ is dead. They filter content for the masses and alleviate the tyranny of choice that many young people face.

7. Newspapers aren’t dead yet either, but they should hire more DJs. Last year at a global conference of newspaper execs hosted by the World Association of Newspapers, I revealed that young people feel TV is a more credible news source than newspapers. This was part of a study on youth news media trends called Youth Media DNA. The fact is young people probably consume a lot of newspaper content without knowing it. Newspapers need to create their own version of the BBC iPlayer (I don’t mean a video player specifically) to show young people what value they get from newspaper content. Oh, and they need to provide it free for a while, change editorial to focus on issues that are more interesting to young people, use parents as allies and build relevant relationships with schools. I’m just getting started.

8. The size of youth social networks may be overblown. Most people are surprised at how few online friends young people have. On average teenagers have 90 online friends. But while that seems low to some, it is also a bit misleading. More than half of teenagers have less than 20 online friends - meaning that while a minority have tonnes of friends, most have a few.

All fuller response to the original Morgan Stanley report written by DECODE intern Ben Doherty is available for download here.

Robert Barnard Attitudes, Consumer, Generation Y, Online Engagement, Social Networking, Students, Young Employees, Youth Trends Britain, DJ, media, Newspapers, social networks, teenager, twitter, UK

These article pops up every once in a while….the familiar storyline…”hey, youth are pretty smart” .

This one is of particular interest given its media and tech focus. Amazing on one hand that Morgan Stanley would release this with no regard to back-up stats.  On the other its also cool that the kid has a lot of it right simply based on observation. A global media hit that none of their other analysts could dream of. Where will this 15 year old summer student go from here?

We have seen the they won’t pay for content and they think advertising is dumb lines before, but I like the nuance around mid range phones and wifi vs 3G. And I love the knock against Twitter…Still it is slated to be the superstar at this year’s Sundance Media conference. How is that second life thing going these days anyway…

Robert Barnard Attitudes, Generation Y, Online Engagement, Social Networking, United Kingdom 3G, media, teenager, twitter, wifi, youth