America’s most successful and influential business leaders are not yet replacing traditional media with digital, although the latter is on the rise, according to a survey from Ipsos MediaCT released in October 2011. Results from the Business Elite USA survey reveal that 87% of this group still utilize print, and 82% TV on a daily basis. Among daily publication titles, the Wall Street Journal dominates in average issue readership (AIR), at 46.3%. This is 60% more than the second-ranking daily publication, USA Today, which claims an AIR of 29%. The only other daily publication to score an AIR in double digits is the New York Times (18.9%).
The Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) also leads all websites with 25.8% monthly reach, ahead of Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com) and CNN (cnn.com), with 25.2% and 24.2% respectively.
According to Ipsos, the Business Elite continue to control the largest budgets, of on average US$22.9 million, while their salaries now stand at over US$538,000.
Fox Leads TV Networks
Fox takes the top spot among network channels in terms of group penetration, boasting 46.3% reach on a daily basis and 85.2% monthly reach. NBC, CBS, and ABC follow, with 37.9%, 34.9% and 31.7% daily reach respectively. PBS is a distant fifth, with 14.1% daily reach. Overall, network channels slightly edge cable channels in daily reach among the group, 69.2% to 67.3%. The gap is almost nonexistent for monthly reach, with network channels picking up 95.9% penetration to 95.0% for cable channels.
Sports Prove Popular
Among cable TV channels, ESPN easily beats out Fox News for the top spot, gaining 37.4% daily reach and 68.5% monthly reach. Sports Illustrated also leads in weekly print titles, with 17.5% AIR, outpacing Newsweek and Time, at 15.9% and 15.8% respectively.
Digital Casts Wide Net
Digital media is increasing in popularity among the business elite, according to the survey. Seven in 10 (70.2%) members of this group access content via a smartphone on a weekly basis, while a further 52% access news via a smartphone or tablet. Close to half (45.9%) stream or watch video from a website, while almost one-third (29.9%) access social networks. Business leaders are clearly not avid bloggers, though: while 22% report reading a blog, just 2.2% contribute to one, less than the number (3.3%) who watch a 3D TV at home.
About the Data: The Ipsos data is based on a survey of 586,748 senior business executives.
Nielsen: High Income Households w/Kids Use Most Web
High income US households with children younger than 18 are most likely to use the internet, representing a disproportionately large percentage of the US internet universe, according to an April 2011 study from The Nielsen Company. Data from “The New Digital American Family” indicates households earning $75,000 or more in annual income represent 17% of the internet universe, a figure 30% larger than the 13% of total US population they represent.