“The French, as Steve Martin once observed, have a different word for everything,” Alan Mutter writes in his latest “Reflections of a Newsosaur” post. “But a recent groundbreaking study of modern media consumers by BVA, a French market research firm, resonates perfectly in any language.”
The French study found that young people have very different attitudes than their elders about the values, expectations and economic underpinnings that suffuse the newspaper business, Mutter adds. The research, he explains, is important to anyone worried about the future of the newspaper business, because it demonstrates how profoundly next-generation consumers differ from the aging ones who account for more than half of newspaper readership in the United States — even though they represent barely 30% of the population.
“The almost complete generational disconnect means that editors and publishers have lots to learn — tout de suite — if they hope to preserve the long-term sustainability and value of their franchises,” he continues. “But it won’t be easy, because learning to think, speak and act in this new and alien paradigm is even harder than learning French.”
Mutter lists the key findings of the research — and their implications for the newspaper business — in the column, which you can check out here.N
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