Move over, network TV. Step aside, major dailies. Talk radio — beware. Cable news is taking over. And the Web ain’t far behind.
No doubt about it, cable news is in. The recent issue of Adweek had an interesting survey about where Americans get their news on politics. The days of the major newspapers, Walter Cronkite-style anchors, and radio personalities dominating political news are over.
When asked “Where do you get most of your political information?” cable TV leads with 30 percent, followed by network TV with 22 percent, the Web at 19 percent and print media at 17 percent. Network radio is way down at 5 percent.
CNN, Fox and MSNBC all lead NBC, CBS and ABC when it comes to their credibility as a news source. The three cable channels’ websites are also more popular than the network websites for political information.
A remarkable 83 percent of Americans go online multiple times a day and another 13 percent go online once a day. Hello — that’s 96 percent! And 28 percent have noticed political ads on the Web over the past three months.
If you are talking to voters, you’d better be talking on cable. Sure, the nightly newscasts get more eyeballs and the big dailies drive coverage, but for repetition and impact don’t ignore cable. And YouTube and Comedy Central are penetrating more than ever.
Just consider the number of times the “I have a Crush on Obama” video got played on cable, let alone the YouTube hits.
The name of the game is target, target, target, and if you’re spending hard-earned campaign dollars you better look at cable and the key political websites.