By Marketing Charts
The pandemic has receded (or at least, concerns about it have) and been replaced by other societal concerns such as inflation, economic fragility, climate change, and war in the Ukraine. How has media consumption changed amid this landscape? The latest edition of Marketing Charts’ US Media Audience Demographics report [purchase page] shows that media reach has plateaued after gains made during
1. Media Reach Dips Span Digital & Traditional Media
After increases in media reach were registered during the pandemic, this past year’s data shows that those gains have subsided and been replaced by slips in reach across all media analyzed. This suggests that media consumption has reached something of a short-term plateau, but also that the broad shifts that occurred – likely as a result of the pandemic – have eased.
Indeed, only one medium saw a somewhat sizable change in reach in 2022 compared to a year earlier: although a majority of adults (52.7%) reported listening to internet radio in the Spring 2022 data, that was down from 58.8% a year earlier.
That decline is interesting in light of other audio-related formats. Offline radio remained relatively consistent at 91.3% reach (down slightly from 92.8%), while podcast listening was the most steady from the year earlier, almost flat at 22.7% of adults listening weekly (versus 22.9% the year earlier).
2. Hispanic Adults Less Tuned in to Traditional Media
Hispanic adults are consistently less likely to engage with traditional media than the general population, according to the report. While they’re close to the average in weekly use of offline radio and print newspapers, they under-index more heavily in traditional TV viewing (71% vs. the 76% average, and as seen in other research) and print magazine readership (46% vs. 52%).
By contrast, digital audio seems like a good bet for reaching Hispanic adults, who over-index in internet radio listening and are right at the average in podcast listening.
3. Affluents Sure Like Their Media
Across all of the digital and traditional media types analyzed, one thing was consistent: adults with household income of at least $100K were more likely than average to engage with the medium.
This was especially the case for certain digital media, with affluents being considerably more likely than the average to watch streaming/downloaded video, read digital periodicals/e-books, and listen to podcasts.
Article originally appeared on Marketing Charts.
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