altDiversity

With all the talk about newspaper readership shrinking in tough times, and amid lots of handwrining about how the Internet is killing print, one of the elephants in the room is that media that cater to more diverse readerships, as well as specific under-served minority communities, are growing dramatically. At its recent expo in Atlanta New America Media released the results of a new study that should give all “mainstream” and even alt-weekly outlets pause. Here’s just one of the findings:

The number of adults reached by ethnic media has increased by approximately 16 percent during the last four year.

There should come as no major surprise for those who keep up with both demographic and generational trends in the U.S. For one thing, as I talk about elsewhere on this blog, younger media consumers *expect* diversity in their media. They may not want to sit around and discuss diversity all the time — after all, why should you need to *talk* about something so basic!? — but all of the research backs up the obvious: they care about diversity in media. Yes, including young white media consumers.

Our experience here at the Jackson Free Press at least anecdotally (we believe decisively) backs up the idea that today’s media consumers (and advertisers) respond to diverse media (which includes stories, images and advertising messages). Our paper’s revenue has continued to steadily grow, as has our readership. We strongly believe that is in no small part due to our dedication to diversity throughout our newspaper and our Web site. In other words, we believe strongly that diversity is good for business. And all of the studies back us up, so hey.

Business of Diversity, Demographics, Millennials content, Ethnic Media, Millennials, New America Media

Listen to a Dec. 5 radio program by Washington state youth about the need for media diversity, including segments about:

* Youth are looking critically at the media and many are not happy with how they are portrayed in the media. Listen to voices of Washington youth speak about what they would like to see and how they would like to change media representation. (Sami Muilenburg, Seattle, WA)
* An interview with Joe Torres, lobbyist for Freepress who speaks about the need for a critical mass of minority voices in our media landscape. (Gavin Dahl, Boise ID)
* KPCN is the only union owned radio station in the Northwest. We listen to the president of Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United speak about how they planned to use their airwaves. (Sue Supriano, Eugene, OR)

Millennials Millennials, Radio

Generation Y (roughly our current under-30 generation) deals with diversity much better than older generations because it grew up among many different cultures, races and lifestyles at school and has been similarly exposed through television and the Web. They don’t want to talk about race all the time, but they notice and can respond negatively to the lack of it. (Howe and Strauss)

Read more…

Demographics Demographics, Millennials