Information Content of Newspaper Advertisements

Abstract

This study is a content analysis of a sample of newspaper advertisements, 98% of which contained at least one information cue; one-third contained four or more cues. The average number of cues per ad was 2.8. Compared with earlier studies, these findings suggest newspaper ads are more “informative” than television and magazine ads. This would be expected because of the “local” and copy-heavy nature of newspaper advertising.