by Roy Barker, Director – Special Projects
Recently the question was posed, “Are Newspapers still a good form of advertising for senior living communities”. The simple answer is yes with a few general caveats. Careful attention must still be paid to the design of the advertisement, the general message to be conveyed, the placement within the sections of the paper, the day the article runs, and of course the circulation of the newspaper in the targeted area. Recently while doing some client research I came across a 2011 Pew Survey “The State of Media” which provided data gathered by Scarborough Research Data. The following statistics will interest any senior housing marketing department.
The percentages reported are of those nationally who read any daily newspaper yesterday:
Age
65+ – 60%
55-64 – 50%
45-54 – 45%
Income
$150k + 53%
$100k to $149k – 46%
$75k to $99k – 45%
Education
College Graduate – 46%
Some Post Graduate – 49%
Post Graduate Degree – 54%
Here is the link to the full report, 2011 Pew Survey “The State of Media”
Another report that stated that only about 41% of 65+ use the internet and email, while 35% of those 75+ use the internet unassisted, I am sure these numbers are a lot higher for adult children decision makers.
As a person of the adult child decision maker age (that was really hard to admit), and someone that is fairly receptive of technology with access to a PC, laptop, ipad, and iphone, I still read at least 2 daily newspapers, a few weeklies, and a few select periodicals. I am also a lot more apt to act upon advertisements seen in a newspaper or magazine than those I see on the internet.