Nielsen Partners With NNPA
by Thelma Sardin
On Friday morning, Cheryl Pearson-McNeil, senior vice president of public affairs and government relations for The Nielsen Company, presented the details of a three year partnership the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) has developed with the corporation.
Pearson-McNeil made the announcement at a breakfast program during the NNPAs Annual Convention that was held at the Drake Hotel in Chicago.
The Nielsen exec is also a Chicago native. She has over twenty years of public relations, communications and writing experience. In addition, she is the former press secretary for Chicago City Treasurer Miriam Santos and is also a former director of station relations for NBC 5 Chicago.
The Nielsen Company is most notably known for its Nielsen ratings, that determines the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States.
The alliance includes the awarding of scholarships to deserving students, the release of an annual report and a bi-weekly newspaper column to appear in all 180+ NNPA member publications.
During Fridays breakfast where Pearson-McNeil made the announcement, NNPA Chairman Danny Bakewell, Sr. praised the creation of the annual report to be titled, The State of the African American Consumer Report.
It will help us when we go to corporations and first ask them politely to do business with African American newspapers, radio stations and TV stations, Bakewell said.
In addition, Pearson-McNeil said the report will be released in September. Over the next three years, each September during the Black Congressional Caucus reception we will release the State of the African American Consumer Report, she said. Nielsen analysts are currently working to gather information to produce a profile of the average African American consumer.
Moreover, Nielsen will provide scholarships totaling up to $40,000 for the next 3 years. We want to recognize students who are majoring in communications and journalism, said Pearson-McNeil; however Nielsen will also focus on students who are majoring in science, technology, education and math. Pearson-McNeil said that students from these fields will, help feed our pipeline of [future workers] in the research company.
Earlier this year, Pearson-McNeil wrote a blog on Nielsens website co-authored with Todd Hale, another Nielsen executive.
In the blog titled, Dissecting Diversity: Understanding the Ethnic Consumer, the pair analyzed the behavior of US ethnic groups including Blacks, Hispanics and Asians/Pacific Islanders.
According to the blog, African Americans watch almost two hours more of television than average American households.
The blog states that African Americans consume 6 hours and 54 minutes of television a day versus the 5 hour and 11 minute average for all U.S. households. Additionally, more than 30 percent of African American households have four or more televisions. In terms of cellular phone service, Blacks use more voice minutes than other groups (1,261 minutes per month).
In addition, Pearson-McNeil and Hale also cite that African-Americans shop more frequently than other ethnicities, but spend less on each trip and on an annual basis. Compared to other households, African-Americans make relatively fewer trips to grocery stores and supercenters, but are more frequent shoppers in smaller retailers like drug stores, dollar stores and convenience/gas channels. Spending on basic food ingredients, non-alcoholic beverages, and personal and beauty care products exceeds the U.S. average.
According to its website, The Nielsen Company is committed to accurately measuring a broad range of consumer behavior representing a wide range of ethnicities, cultures and organizations worldwide.
Source: Nielsen.com
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