Advertising Differs: A Content
Analysis of Print and Online Media
Ron NewmanFIU Spring 2007
The Importance of Advertising
Ad sales make up 74.2% of total magazine revenue.
Current strategy for magazine is to have both a traditional magazine and Online presence.
Publishers must effectively draw revenue from online ventures.
Drawbacks of Previous Medium Analyses
Online advertising differs significantly from printed advertising
Past studies create one exact for each medium.
Traditional Example
Online Example
Drawbacks of Previous Medium Analyses
Online advertising differs significantly from printed advertising
Past studies create one exact for each medium.
Comparisons were split into unequal categories - print advertisements and company websites.
Detailed Content AnalysisA research technique for the objective, systematic,
and quantitative description of the content.
1. Online advertisements will focus on high involvement products. Traditional print advertisements will have a large variety of low involvement consumer products.
2. Online ads will concentrate more on brand awareness while print ads will focus more on product specific aspects.
3. The volume and variety of traditional ads will outnumber their online counterpart.
4. This study will measure the amount of synchronization among the traditional ads to see if improvements have been made since Sheehan and Doherty’s (2001) findings.
Hypotheses
Categories Examined
Quantitative Number of Ads Number of Advertisers Size of Ad Location of Ad (Online) Visual Style (Online) Online Link (Traditional)
Qualitative Product Category – The nature of the advertiser’s
business. Product Classification – High involvement, or low
involvement Advertising Focus – What the ad message is
describing or selling – the Brand, Product, Service, or Internet Site.
Advertising Strategy
Secondary Online Ads
Click links or text links
Unrelated Logo links
Drop Down Lists
Magazine related advertisements
Numbers of AdsNumber of Advertisers
Comparison of Ads and Advertisers
761
277237
107
174147
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Ads Unique Advertisers
Am
ou
nt
Co
ded
Online All Ads
Online Premium
High Involvement / Low Involvement
Advertising Focus
Hypothesis – Online ads will concentrate more on brand awareness Print ads will focus more on product specific aspects.
Variety of Advertisements
Synchronization of Advertising
Business and Newsweekly category highly synchronized
Fashion and Men’s Lifestyle low synchronization
Overall, findings much higher than previous studies.
Additional Findings of Interest
The location of online ads tend to be placed on the right side of the screen.
Additional Findings of Interest
Advertising Strategy
Additional Research Opportunities
The study can be replicated to examine niche publications
The focus of the content analysis can be narrowed to a particular subset and broadened
The analysis can be lengthened to a longer time period such as a six month or a year time span.
Different media platforms can be used in this study such as newspapers and PDA’s and Cell phones
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