NBC says series drew an additional 74,000 black women viewers to newescast

By Richard Prince
Journal-isms
(December 10, 2007) The "African-American Women: Where They Stand" series that aired on "NBC Nightly News" from Nov. 26 to Nov. 30 delivered 74,000 more black viewers than usual, and 70,000 of them were women, an NBC spokeswoman told Journal-isms on Monday.

The five-part series was the subject of an extensive e-mailing and word-of-mouth campaign among African American women.

NBC reached 863,000 African American viewers, which was up 9 percent, or 74,000, from the season-to-date average of 789,000, spokeswoman Lauren Kapp said, quoting Nielsen figures.

Among African American women, NBC reached 535,000 viewers, up 15 percent, or 70,000, from the season-to-date average of 465,000.

Among African American women aged 25 to 54, the network reached 191,000 viewers, up 12 percent, or 21,000, from the season-to-date average of 170,000.

NBC won the November "sweeps," which ended on Wednesday of that week, but came in second to ABC's "World News" for the week of the series.

Writing about the series for AdAge.com on the Wednesday of that week, Carol Watson of the Women's Media center said, "The journalists covering the stories are incredibly talented black women that I am sure had to fight hard to get even these 2-minute segments running for five consecutive days. But the debate on the value and context of the information still creates a storm among black consumers. Blacks continue to demand a positive and solutions-oriented point of view from media.

"For many black women, the complaint about the news series is the constant burden of the negatives with little or no solution or context for the reasons for the disparities. The Monday segment compared black women to white women and . . . black women to black men — a pattern in news media that makes the black consumer cautious and hesitant about the motivations of the media. As Essence Editor Angela Burt-Murray said in an online comment, that segment may make a black woman want to shoot herself in the head.

"Thankfully, the online interviews provide far more context and information than the two-minute segments."


Go to Target Market News homepage

 

 14th Edition Now Available!
New 2007 Buying Power report shows spending up in major categories

The 2007 edition of "The Buying Power of Black America" has just been released by Target Market News. The one-of-a-kind report is the most quoted source of information on how African-American consumers spend their $744 billion in income.

According to the newest edition of “The Buying Power of Black America,” there is growth in a number of major product categories despite that slowdown in overall consumer purchases. Get the details by ordering your copy now.

Click here to order The Buying Power of Black
America report

_________________________________________________________________________________________


The African-American
Book Publishing Authority



Now in its ninth year of publication, Black Issues Book Review is the only nationally distributed magazine devoted exclusively to covering the latest news and reviews on black books. BIBR also provides up-to-date news on forthcoming author signings, book fairs and book clubs.
Want this issue? Get it with your new subscription.
Click Here

A TARGET MARKET NEWS PUBLICATION
_________________________


  SUBSCRIBE TODAY! 


The trade publication for
in-depth coverage of Black
Consumer Marketing
and Media news