TV Is No Substitute

Motivational research has been defined as the art of disguising soft ideas in hard words for a stiff fee. Now, in a refreshing reversal of form, Dr. Ernest Dichter's Institute for Motivational Re search has produced some hard facts about newspapers and television--for no fee at all.

Increasingly Thin. When Manhattan's seven dailies were about to be shut down by a strike just one year ago, the institute's vice president, Irving Oilman, saw a chance to probe for the values people find in newspapers when they cannot take them for granted and an opportunity to measure the ability of television and radio to fill the void. But Gilman was unable to find a client. Both publishers and broadcasters seemed afraid of the possible results. The institute went ahead anyway, picking up the tab itself for lengthy personal interviews with a total of 530 New Yorkers before, during and after the strike. When the report is issued next month, the newspaper industry will receive a free testimonial to the fact that most readers find them irreplaceable for their news coverage and for their advertising as well.

Before the strike, fully 83% of those interviewed thought television and radio news coverage excellent; only 6% said it was poor. During the strike, TV beefed up news and commentary, while some radio stations programmed news nonstop. Yet the study discovered that as the strike wore on, viewers without papers found broadcast news increasingly thin and monotonous. By the end of 114 newspaperless days, only 16% thought TV and radio had done an excellent job, another 16% found them no more than satisfactory, and a startling 68% said that TV and radio news was poor.

Relief on Sunday. The worst quality of broadcast news, people reported, was that it talked too much without saying enough new. "I'm getting claustrophobia or a tin ear or something," said one respondent. "If they do mention something I'm interested in, it slides right by me." "The same thing over and over," was the frequent complaint. In contrast, the newspaper reader can follow the path of his own interests, guided but not compelled by headlines and layout.

One further finding of the study has already been confirmed by the papers' circulation figures since the strike. On Sundays, the absence of huge weekend editions came to some people as a positive relief, freeing them for other activities. When the papers came back, many readers who were delighted to pick up their workaday reading habits, also found themselves content to skip Sunday, comics and all.

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