Of ads and apps: the influence of advertising on user attitudes toward tablet newspapers

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between the inclusion and style of advertising in tablet newspapers and user attitudes, including intention to adopt. The study created a mock newspaper app on an iPad with versions differing by the existence and style of advertising - the two independent variables. The dependent variables were attitudes toward tablet newspapers and intentions to adopt tablet newspapers. Post-stimuli measures were taken in survey form and, in addition to the dependent measures, participants provided demographic information and experience with various media. The hypotheses predicted significant differences between print-style ads (main effect) and Internet-style ads (main effect), with print-style ads scoring more positive on attitude measures. The hypotheses also predicted that the print-style main effect was dependent on the absence of Internet-style ads (interaction). Additional hypotheses predicted significant difference between print-style ads and Internet-style ads on an intention-to-adopt measure. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to evaluate differences among the groups. There were no significant differences among the groups that saw the print-style ads versus the Internet-style ads versus a mix of both styles and no ads on user attitudinal measures. There also were no significant differences related to the style of ads and intention to adopt tablet newspapers. However, theoretical concepts and research reviewed for this study, together with the non-significant findings do suggest that the existence of advertising might have a positive effect on attitudes toward a medium and further research is recommended to explore this idea.