When the Impact study surveyed 37,000 consumers across the United States about their local newspapers, it found many ways for newspapers to increase readership. Almost every kind of improvement in service, editorial quality, brand perception and advertising quality has the potential to increase customer satisfaction and readership.

But the real challenge isn't coming up with areas to improve, but in prioritizing improvements to make the most of limited resources. If you can't do everything, how do you decide what's most important?

The Readership Institute decided to prioritize opportunities by their ability to get people to actually read the newspaper more. Where will improvements motivate people to spend more time with the newspaper and read more sections more often? These ratings are called opportunity scores.

Not surprisingly, some opportunities have more potential than others. A newspaper that's seen as intelligent, successful and experienced is more likely to increase readership than a newspaper that is seen as being old fashioned.

When we consider brand perceptions, opportunity scores give a general sense of the power of one perception vs. another, but judgment must be used in interpreting them. In all cases, a brand perception has to be seen as relevant to individual readers. In a small, rural market, it may be more important to be seen as middle class and neighborly than being "in the know" - even though both perceptions have the same opportunity score.

Many people ask why "accuracy" appears so low on the list. Accuracy shouldn't be seen as somehow less important because it appears on the bottom. Rather, we believe it means that accuracy is such a fundamental requirement that it can be seen as a threshold issue. You must have it in order to survive, but being accurate will not be enough to build readership going forward.

Across U.S. newspapers we found these opportunity scores to be remarkably consistent. Regardless of circulation size or market circumstance, the relative rankings of each opportunity remain the same. This consistency means that any newspaper can implement these changes with confidence that the insights apply to it.

The opportunity scores themselves have no inherent meaning - they are relative scores used to rank areas. Differences of three to four points in an opportunity score also aren't meaningful. Focus on the overall rank of opportunities and differences of more than five points.

Brand Perceptions	Opportunity Scores
The paper is...	Overall	Men	Women
Easy to read	67	74	75
Intelligent, successful, experienced	56	64	59
Informed, in the know	51	57	54
Honest, trustworthy, helpful	51	57	54
Community leader, strong personality	49	56	52
Middle class, neighborly	49	54	54
Makes me think	48	57	48
Reflects my beliefs, cares about me	46	53	48
Fun, creative, energetic	45	51	48
Belonging, fulfillment	43	48	46
Can be used anywhere, anytime	38	44	41
Accurate	30	37	29
Conservative	20	--	--
Opinionated, arrogant	15	16	17
Liberal	13	--	--
Old fashioned	6	--	--

Brand Perceptions	Opportunity Scores
The paper is...	Overall	Age 18-35	Age 36-54	Age 55+
Easy to read	67	61	74	76
Intelligent, successful, experienced	56	51	59	66
Informed, in the know	51	43	55	61
Honest, trustworthy, helpful	51	47	53	59
Community leader, strong personality	49	38	52	59
Middle class, neighborly	49	45	51	58
Makes me think	48	42	50	59
Reflects my beliefs, cares about me	46	34	48	59
Fun, creative, energetic	45	46	44	51
Belonging, fulfillment	43	37	41	53
Can be used anywhere, anytime	38	32	41	49
Accurate	30	23	30	44
Conservative	20	--	--	--
Opinionated, arrogant	15	21	12	14
Liberal	13	--	--	--
Old fashioned	6	--	--	--

Brand Perceptions	Opportunity Scores
The paper is...	Overall	Black	Hispanic	White
Easy to read	67	74	53	75
Intelligent, successful, experienced	56	57	39	63
Informed, in the know	51	29	35	57
Honest, trustworthy, helpful	51	37	21	59
Community leader, strong personality	49	52	23	55
Middle class, neighborly	49	45	24	56
Makes me think	48	60	49	52
Reflects my beliefs, cares about me	46	37	38	51
Fun, creative, energetic	45	43	32	51
Belonging, fulfillment	43	36	40	48
Can be used anywhere, anytime	38	39	35	42
Accurate	30	42	16	33
Conservative	20	--	--	--
Opinionated, arrogant	15	33	21	16
Liberal	13	--	--	--
Old fashioned	6	--	--	--

Impact Study: Overview Page

Brand Perceptions: Overview Page