Commentary

'Boston Globe' Enlists Nielsen For Audience Diversity Study

  • by May 20, 2021
The Boston Globe's publisher has commissioned Nielsen to conduct a study of readers and potential subscribers as the basis for the paper's strategy to broaden its audience and boost advertising sales.

A key goal is to learn more about the needs of local communities by interviewing people from a cross-section of ethnicities, ages, gender identities and incomes.

It's a good idea amid the shifts in people's media consumption habits and longer-term demographic changes. Generation Z consumers whose spending power will grow as more of them reach adulthood are considered the most multi-ethnic group in U.S. history, according to Pew Research Center.

Even though the median age of the news audience tends to be older, the sensibilities of Gen Z will shape how media outlets cover the news and how advertisers seek to engage them with their brands.

Nielsen will ask consumers about their perceptions of Boston Globe Media's properties, which include the namesake paper and the Boston.com. The publisher also renewed its agreement for services, including Nielsen Scarborough, Scarborough Fusion and Prime Lingo, according to an announcement.
The audience study follows the Globe's recent efforts to promote diversity and inclusion. In March, the publisher announced a collaboration with the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research to revive The Emancipator, the short-live abolitionist publication from the 19th century.

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A month earlier, the Globe began an initiative called "Fresh Start" to give people a chance to update or anonymize its past coverage of them to avoid the lasting consequences of preserving embarrassments or minor crimes online. The program is part of the Globe's efforts to weigh the effects of its coverage on people of color amid the nationwide reckoning on racial justice.
The publisher's Support Black Owned initiative provides complimentary advertising space to local Black-owned businesses. Its GlobeDocs Film Festival during Black History Month drew one of its biggest crowds, per the Globe.
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