Newspaper Readers and a New Information Medium

The concept of functional equivalence is combined with individual characteristics—information need and channel orientation—to create a model describing potential differences in newspaper readers' adoption of videotex. Three possible user groups are identified: loyalists, who would remain with newspapers; shifters, who would replace newspapers with videotex; and adders, who would use both. Discriminant analysis of survey data supports the proposed model: adders have a higher information need than the single-medium users, who are in turn distinguished from each other by their channel orientation. Loyalists are "traditional"; shifters are "modern."