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Interactive Opportunity Scorecard: Instructions

The Readership Institute has developed an Opportunity Scorecard for the newspaper industry. The scorecard ranks content, brand, service, and advertising-related opportunities by their potential for increasing readership. In addition, the database provides reader demographic information for each opportunity.

Here's a step-by-step guide to using the database:

The Introduction page is your home page. Here you choose the type of analysis you want. All subsequent pages have a "Return to Introduction" button

There are four analyses, or Phases, from which to choose:
  • Basic: Ranks the 41 consumer factors by their potential to increase readership among all readers and shows the demographic distribution for each factor.


  • Heavy/Light Readers: Enables users to rank the consumer factors by their potential to increase readership for heavy readers or for light readers separately.


  • Gender: Enables users to rank the consumer factors by their potential to drive readership for men or for women separately.


  • Heavy/Light plus gender: Enables the user to rank the consumer factors by two variables simultaneously: level of readership and gender. For example, rank the consumer factors for their potential for women who are light readers.

The steps are similar for each phase. Let's start with a Basic Analysis:
  1. On the introduction page, select the Basic Analysis by clicking on the words or on the radio button to the left of the words.


  2. Next CLICK the Continue button.


  3. The window in the Basic Analysis page displays the consumer factors in rank order from greatest to least potential to grow readership among all readers. Under the list are four navigation buttons.


  4. If you wish to return to the home page to pick a different Phase, CLICK Return to Introduction.


  5. CLICK the Instructions button to get details on how to use the page.


  6. CLICK on any Consumer Factor to highlight it, then CLICK Define Highlighted Factor to see the question from the consumer survey upon which the factor is based.


  7. CLICK Print Consumer Factors to see a list of print options.
  8. CLICK on any Consumer Factor to highlight it, then CLICK Show Demographics to see the distribution of reader demographics for that factor in four quadrants:


    • Disconnected / Light Readers
    • Disconnected / Heavy Readers
    • Connected / Heavy Readers
    • Connected / Light Readers

    Disconnected-Connected refers to the sense of affinity that readers feel with newspapers as a result of the consumer factor. Readers that fall into the "connected" quadrant are relatively satisfied with this aspect of the paper and those that fall into the "disconnected" quadrant are generally less satisfied with this aspect of the paper.

    Light-Heavy refers to the degree to which consumers use the newspaper - the amount of time they spend with it, how often they read it, how completely they read it.

  9. To display the same information in text format instead of the quadrant diagram, Go to the toolbar at the top of the screen and CLICK Open Demographics - Text View.


  10. To print the demographic distribution, go to the toolbar and CLICK Print to see a list of print options.


  11. To return to the list of consumer factors, CLICK Return to Opportunities in the toolbar.


  12. To return to the home page, CLICK Return to Introduction.
    Each of the other three phases works similarly and employs the same navigation buttons.

Selecting the Heavy/Light Readers phase opens a page that looks like the Basic page, with an additional choice to make. At the top of the page, first pick a Strategy by selecting Focus on Heavy Readers or Focus on Light Readers, then CLICK Show Results. The window in this phase displays the consumer factors in rank order for their potential to grow readership in the selected target group. (The rank for each factor among all readers remains the same and is displayed in the left column.) The rest of the navigation buttons operate the same as on the Basic page.

Selecting the Gender phase opens a page with the opportunity to rank the consumer factors for women or men separately. At the top of the page, first select Women or Men, then CLICK Show Results to see the consumer factors in rank order for the selected target. (The rank for each factor among all readers remains the same and is displayed in the left column.) The rest of the navigation buttons operate the same as on the Basic page.

Selecting the Heavy/Light plus Gender phase opens a page with the opportunity to rank the consumer factors for two variables together: women or men and heavy reader or light reader. At the top of the page, first pick a Strategy by selecting Focus on Light Readers or Focus on Heavy Readers, then pick a Gender by selecting Focus on Men or Focus on Women. CLICK Show Results to see the consumer factors in rank order for the selected target. (The rank for each factor among all readers remains the same and is displayed in the left column.) The rest of the navigation buttons operate the same as on the Basic page.


Launch the Interactive Opportunity Scorecard




Additional Information

©2010 Readership Institute • 304 Fisk Hall • Northwestern University • 1845 Sheridan Road • Evanston, IL 60208-2110
phone: 847.491.9900 • fax: 847.491.5619 • email: institute@readership.org