- The youth is homogenous
Contrary to this widespread belief in the media, misled by general demographics, the youth is a diverse market.

- The youth don’t read
“While it is true that South Africa does struggle with illiteracy and a general lack of young readers, this is not true of the Afrikaans youth market;” reported biz-community.com.
The youth also tends to be skeptical about authoritative news. JIP adapted to this editorially by moving “towards strong opinions, not authoritative statements,” says Rheeder.

- The youth don’t like newspapers
Perhaps the youth isn’t as prone to newspaper-reading as it once was, but papers must build the bridges to attract young readers. While JIP is targeted toward a school audience, Beeld offers Kampus-Beeld for university students, hoping that they eventually read the traditional paper.
Whereas some believe the youth has simply discarded newspapers as an old medium, “we discount this theory, the response to JIP at our school road shows has been incredible,” says Rheeder.

- The Youth wants soft issues
This isn’t necessarily false, but it’s not true either. Give the youth some fun-oriented products, but don’t treat them as kids. They also want to hear strong opinion and be considered as responsible citizens. “They don't want to take the environment for granted, they are AIDS aware and they care about global climate change,” says Rheeder.

- The Youth wants slang
The youth doesn’t want mind-boggling language, but it doesn’t appreciate slang either. “They can sniff an adult talking down to them a mile away, trying to disguise this by adopting ‘hip' language,” comments biz-community.com. “One recent editorial change was toning down on the use of exclamation marks in the newspaper – a typical young style,” says Rheeder.

Source: Biz-Community through IFRA Executive News Service