June 4, 2008, - 1:42 pm
Good News & Bad News on The Biggest Influences in America
By Debbie Schlussel
Who is the most influential person on the American book-buying public?
Well, there’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, Oprah is not the most influential.
The bad news? It’s Jon Stewart. In my book, he’s equally as moronic and annoying, as are his followers to hers. Mere sarcasm and being obnoxious–without any substance to back it up, as in Stewart’s case–does not make you smart. On the contrary, it betrays your simplicity.
Yup, America–with Jon Stewart and Oprah as your Number 1 and Number 2 literature critics–you’re goin’ down the tubes very quickly.
But there’s a silver lining to this dark cloud. Stewart only influences 8% of book-buying decisions, and Oprah only 5%. Yes, those are significant spheres of influence. But at least we know the other 87% don’t listen to these “culture” cretins.
What influences the smarter 87%?
No one is more revered in publishing than Oprah Winfrey and her televised book club. But when asked “What makes you buy a book?” more readers named Jon Stewart (8%) than Winfrey (5%), according to a poll of reading and book buying habits to be released today at BookExpo America. “The Oprah book phenomenon is well-documented,” says Fritz Weaver of Zogby International, which conducted the poll for Random House. “But Stewart’s audience, although smaller, cuts across more demographic lines.” The biggest influences in picking a book: suggestions from friends and family, what publishers call “word of mouth” (60%) and book reviews (49%). The poll also reports 11% prefer curling up with an e-book reader, PDA or other format rather than a printed book. Details of the online poll of 8,218 adults are at www.zogby.com.
While I don’t hold much stock in Zogby polls–their polls on Arabs, Muslims, and the Mideast are skewed to match the Arabist Zogby Brothers’ anti-Israel, pro-HAMAS/Hezbollah positions, and Zogby polls have been wrong in a lot of elections–there is some interesting info in the poll summary about who is buying books, why, and what their habits are. . . if it can be believed.
Also, I wonder how accurate online polls are in this case, since I’d bet a significant number of book-buyers are not frequent online users.
my friends all watch John Stewart and they think it makes them smart and informed…
PrincessKaren on June 4, 2008 at 2:13 pm