Let’s hear it for the Boomers

The president and found of the Boomer Project has the answer to newspaper circulation problems: "For the last 10 or so years, as the internet has become a major part of daily life, newspapers in the United States have been struggling with the loss of the young adult reader - those 18 to 34 year olds. Paper after paper, large and small, urban and rural, have tried to address the strategic imperative issued from on high: Attract more young adult readers! Our advice to newspapers is the opposite. Don't worry about young adults, worry about Baby Boomers, those adults ages 41 to 60." While recognising the difference between U.S. and UK markets, Thornhill produces statistics to show that papers should be chasing Boomers: "In the United States today, according to the Census Bureau, one out of every three adults over the age of 21 are Baby Boomers. Those 78 million post-WWII babies are a population bubble that is still a long way from bursting. If Boomers comprise such a large portion of the total potential audience for newspapers, ignoring them seems foolish. According to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, consumption of newspapers in the U.S. by Boomers has withstood the birth of new media fairly well." And targeting Boomers will work in Britain, he suggests.