Content or design? Factors influencing the circulation of American and German newspapers

Klaus Schoenbach; Edmund Lauf

doi:10.1515/comm.27.1.1

Content or design? Factors influencing the circulation of American and German newspapers

Klaus Schoenbach, Edmund Lauf

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11 Scopus citations

Abstract

What is it that helps newspapers gain or at least keep readers; is it the specific content they offer or measures of design? In an explorative secondary analysis, local daily newspapers in Germany are compared to daily newspapers in the US. The newspapers used in this study were analyzed twice, both in the 1980s and the mid-1990s. In the US, visualizing information and displaying it more generously were more important for positive developments in circulation than in Germany. In Germany, community orientation andan increased relrievability of content helped newspapers secure their sales figures. These different recipes for newspaper success point to cultural differences in what reading a newspaper means.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1-14
Number of pages	14
Journal	Communications
Volume	27
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1515/comm.27.1.1
State	Published - 2002

Funding

The German data set stems from a study which systematically evaluated the success of all 107 main editions of West German daily (work-day) newspapers that existed both in 1989 and in 1994. This was the period of time which saw the greatest changes in newspaper content and design so far (see Schoenbach, Lauf, Stuerzebecher and Knobloch, 1999). Fortunately, for the purpose of our analysis, there were virtually no major changes in the economic structure of those newspapers (e. g., mergers or take-overs) which also could have led to the changes in circulation that we want to study here. The American sample consisted of 50 newspapers from all over the US. They were analyzed in 1985 and again in 1995 (see McLeod, Scheufele, Holbert and Schoenbach, 1999). Both projects were jointly funded by the German Newspaper Publishers Association (BDZV), the German Press Foundation (Stiftervereinigung der Presse), the German National Science Foundation and the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Keywords

Circulation
Content
Design
Newspapers

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Communication
Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

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10.1515/comm.27.1.1

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abstract = "What is it that helps newspapers gain or at least keep readers; is it the specific content they offer or measures of design? In an explorative secondary analysis, local daily newspapers in Germany are compared to daily newspapers in the US. The newspapers used in this study were analyzed twice, both in the 1980s and the mid-1990s. In the US, visualizing information and displaying it more generously were more important for positive developments in circulation than in Germany. In Germany, community orientation andan increased relrievability of content helped newspapers secure their sales figures. These different recipes for newspaper success point to cultural differences in what reading a newspaper means.",

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note = "Funding Information: The German data set stems from a study which systematically evaluated the success of all 107 main editions of West German daily (work-day) newspapers that existed both in 1989 and in 1994. This was the period of time which saw the greatest changes in newspaper content and design so far (see Schoenbach, Lauf, Stuerzebecher and Knobloch, 1999). Fortunately, for the purpose of our analysis, there were virtually no major changes in the economic structure of those newspapers (e. g., mergers or take-overs) which also could have led to the changes in circulation that we want to study here. The American sample consisted of 50 newspapers from all over the US. They were analyzed in 1985 and again in 1995 (see McLeod, Scheufele, Holbert and Schoenbach, 1999). Both projects were jointly funded by the German Newspaper Publishers Association (BDZV), the German Press Foundation (Stiftervereinigung der Presse), the German National Science Foundation and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Copyright: Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",

year = "2002",

doi = "10.1515/comm.27.1.1",

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Content or design? Factors influencing the circulation of American and German newspapers

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