Research On Audience Segmentation Of Metropolis Daily Papers In The New Media Environment

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”It might be appropriate to usethese words of English famous writer Charles Dickens to describe the current situationall the newspapers are facing. With the surging of spreading information throughInternet, the change of production and dissemination of news, the shift of people’sreading mode and reading preferences, newspapers are considered to be in a process oftransition from “golden season” to “winter depression”. These changes have beenproved by figures of subscriptions, advertising share in profits and the overallcompetitiveness. Many professionals in the newspaper business have no idea but saidwith a sigh that the “worst time” had come. However, changes, at the same time, meanopportunity and hope. Some newspapers are trying their best to cope with externalpressure and gradually find a “breakout-path” for their own development.This paper selects the audience segmentation of the metropolis daily to look at thecurrent situation newspapers are confronting and tries to find ways for newspaperstransformation. Relatively speaking, a more market-oriented metropolis daily is moreeasily affected by the above-mentioned changes in news media and has a stronger sensefor changing than other newspapers. Meanwhile, the metropolis daily has a closerrelationship with readers, which might provide possibilities for operation to promotedevelopment in such direction through “audience segmentation”.As for the theoretical part of the study, this article explains some key concepts ofnew media, metropolis daily, audience segmentation, re-analyses the main features as aresult brought about by the upcoming of new media, and elaborates the mediaaudience segmentation. As a case study, this article selects “Double Happiness”, aweekly under The Chongqing Morning Post based in Chongqing, a western mega-citywith a population of33million. A comprehensive analysis of the “Double Happiness”,including its background, audience targeting, development, operational strategy, hashelped summing up its audience segmentation strategy and operational experience.Meanwhile, this article also discusses on the issues of difficulties and shortcomings ofthe Double Happiness Weekly’s development. For such purpose, this article exploresfeasibilities and necessities of the metropolis daily’s audience segmentation strategy,and tries to find some logical ways for their further development.