The Information Content of Newspaper Advertising

Abstract Although newspaper advertising revenues exceed that of television and magazines, there has yet to be a study of the information content of newspaper advertising. This paper assesses the information content of over 500 newspaper ads from thirteen newspapers applying the commonly used Resnik and Stern (1977) method. Newspaper ads averaged 3.13 cues per ad, far more than that found by any previous studies of television and magazine advertising. The amount of newspaper advertising information also varied significantly by the category of newspaper (national or local).