Target audience research



Local newspapers tend to be aimed at a variety of different age groups for different reasons.

The actual stories featured in local newspapers tend to be aimed at people aged 50 and over as they are more likely to be interested in reading about the local news stories and people in their area. However, younger people and families are also likely to read local newspapers but do so in order to gain access to different things. These could include information about events happening or job advertisements for businesses in the local area. People under the age of 16 don't tend to buy or read local newspapers because they are not interested in the stories featured.

I performed a survey to find out what age group is most likely to buy local newspapers and then what they buy the local newspapers for e.g. stories, job advertisements, event information etc. My results are as follows:

The most common age group for buying local newspapers were aged 45 - 55 years old so roughly around middle aged and the most common reason they had for buying local newspapers was to read about the news and stories happening in the area they lived in.

The least common age group for buying local newspapers were aged 16 - 24 years old and the most common reason they bought local newspapers was to search for job advertisements and opportunities of work in the local areas.

Of the people that bought newspapers, some said they shared the newspaper with other family members meaning they wouldn't need to buy a newspapers so my results could have been slightly different if I asked those people.

From my results, I can see that in order for my local newspaper to be successful it needs to appeal to people of all ages through its content and the oppurtunities it can offer.