Napoli, Philip M. . Audience economics : media institutions and the audience marketplace / Philip M. Napoli. [0231126522 (cl. : alk. paper) ] New York : Columbia University Press, c2003.
Call#: Van Pelt Library HF6146.T42 N364 2003

Audience Economics by Philip M. Napoli is a look at how a media company determines its audience and thus its content. The book opens with an explanation of the audience market place and how it is comprised and studied. Napoli describes the four components of the audience market place as the media content providers, the audience measurement organizations, the advertisers and the consumers. Content providers include TV, radio, Internet, newspapers and magazines among other things and the growing amount of content providers, Napoli says, complicates determining an audience. Napoli then discusses the reciprocal influences between the consumers and the advertisers in relation to the audience marketplace. Napoli also explains the concepts of the predicted, measured and actual audiences. In the second chapter takes a closer look at the predicted audience. The first section of the chapter deals with buying the predicted audience. He stresses the importance of forecasting media audiences and the necessity of accurate forecasts. The rest of the chapter deals with handling the uncertainties within the measurements of audiences and predicting an audience in different situations. The third chapter deals with the measured and actual audiences. In this chapter Napoli looks at the inefficiency of audience measurement as well as how these measurements affect media institutions. He writes about sample size and how it is used to determine the actions of a larger audience. The two issues brought up are sample size and sample representativeness. In chapter four, the way advertisers place value on the media audience is discussed. The way market, media and demographic factors affect the value of the audience is the first section of the chapter. The rest of the chapter is a case study on radio and a minority audience. Chapter five outlines the effect of new technology on the audience product and marketplace. The first part of the chapter takes a look at audience fragmentation and autonomy and the pros and cons of these issues within the audience marketplace. The second part of the chapter is about the challenges of new media to measuring an audience and how these issues are dealt with. The final chapter of the book deals with the future of the audience marketplace. It is a brief look at how content evolves with the marketplace.
The book was complex if you do not know a lot about advertising. At times it was hard to follow and a bit dense, but overall, it provided an interesting look at how the market is determined in entertainment media as well as how new media and technology effect the audience market.