Replacement or complement: A niche analysis of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic news

Telematics and Informatics xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Telematics and Informatics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tele

Replacement or complement: A niche analysis of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic news q Shu-Chu Sarrina Li Institute of Communication Studies, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 University Road, Hsinchu City, Taiwan, ROC

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 3 November 2015 Received in revised form 27 July 2016 Accepted 30 July 2016 Available online xxxx Keywords: The theory of the niche Yahoo news Television news Electronic newspapers Replacement behaviors

a b s t r a c t This study adopted the theory of the niche to investigate the competitive relationship between three news media—Yahoo news, television news, and electronic newspapers. Two research methods, intensive interviews and a nationwide telephone survey, were employed to collect data for this study. The telephone survey resulted in 1002 valid telephone calls. This study found that Yahoo news did not produce its own news, but it was perceived by the respondents to be equivalent to television news and that the respondents perceived the strengths of Yahoo news and television news to be very different. Therefore, this study predicts that the two media would be able to coexist in Taiwan’s news media market. Furthermore, the data from the niche analysis show that Yahoo news and television news were generalists, while electronic newspapers were specialists. Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction With the rapid development of new Internet technologies, the Internet has changed the way people consume news. Yahoo news is one of the emerging Internet news media, which is particularly popular with young adults in Taiwan. According to a recent survey (IKED of Shih Hsin University, 2015), 73.4% of the interviewed college students, in comparison to only 28.6% of the general public, indicated that they received news from the Internet. Interestingly, 52.6% of the college students who used online resources to obtain news relied on Yahoo, a portal site. In Taiwan, Yahoo news does not produce its own news but purchases news stories from the major news media. One advantage of Yahoo news is that it allows users to obtain unbiased news reports by accessing news stories from various news media. Most news media in Taiwan have a strong stance regarding political ideologies, and thus, a piece of news is often stated differently depending on the political ideology of the reporting news medium. Another advantage of Yahoo news is its quick updating process that allows users to obtain the most up-to-date information (Chan, 2015). A recent survey found that approximately 59% of the general public received news from television, and therefore, television was considered the most frequently used news medium in Taiwan (IKED of Shih Hsin University, 2015). Among Taiwan’s population of approximately 23 million people, news programs are extremely popular. This is evidenced by the fact that Taiwan has fifteen television news channels, comprising eight cable television channels and seven channels in MOD (Multimedia on demand), which is one type of IPTV. The penetration rates for the cable television and MOD in Taiwan were recorded at approximately 60% and 15%, respectively (NCC, 2015). The remaining 25% of Taiwanese households received

q This study was partially supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Executive Yuan of Taiwan. The grant number is MOST 103-2511-S-009-005-MY3. E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected]

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.07.003 0736-5853/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Li, S.-C.S. Replacement or complement: A niche analysis of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic news. Telemat. Informat. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.07.003

2

S.-C.S Li / Telematics and Informatics xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

news from the digital terrestrial television that has 20 channels including three news channels. These three news channels in terrestrial television were also included in MOD. Another type of online news frequently used by the Taiwanese is electronic newspapers. The first electronic newspaper was established in 1995 by China Times, one of the major newspapers in Taiwan. However, this electronic newspaper did not make profits until 1998, after which all newspapers in Taiwan established their electronic versions on the Internet (Li and Lee, 2010). Before Taiwan’s cable television was legalized in 1993, there was limited time allocated for television news. However, the legalization of cable television has brought about several 24-h cable news channels that have started to compete strongly with newspapers. With its appealing visual/audio presentation forms, cable television news has taken away a large portion of the audience from newspapers, which is apparent from the decreasing number of advertisements in the newspapers. Most newspapers in Taiwan have started to consider the establishment of electronic newspapers as a strategy that would give them a competitive edge on the Internet and permit various forms of news story presentation. As a consequence, all major newspapers in Taiwan have established electronic newspapers (Li and Lee, 2010). According to the theory of the niche, the consumer’s time and money are limited, and thus, when a new medium with better functions becomes available, it attracts the consumer to spend more time and money on it, leaving fewer resources for the older medium. The theory of the niche has originated from population ecology and can explain the coexistence of the new and old media in an environment with limited resources. The theory of the niche defines competition as the overlap of resources used by two populations, and hence, when the degree of this overlap becomes high, the two populations experience fierce competition (Dimmick, 2003; Gaskins and Jerit, 2012). Dimmick (2003, pp. 29–33) classifies the resources used in the media industry into six dimensions, among which gratifications obtained and gratification opportunities are the most critical resources because they automatically lead to consumer spending, consumer time, and advertising spending. Few studies investigated the sixth dimension, namely, media content because it is not a limited resource, which is not consistent with the core notion of niche theory. Yahoo news is not a professional news medium, but this study included it in comparison with electronic newspapers and television news because of the following reasons: (1) Yahoo news does not produce its own news, but it has a powerful team of editing that integrates news efficiently to help users grasp important issues around them; thus, Yahoo news has become a major news channel for college students, one recent study indicating that approximately 40% of college students relied on Yahoo for news (IKED of Shih Hsin University, 2015); and (2) Yahoo has been ranked as having the highest rate of reach among all websites in Taiwan, which allows it to gain more advertising revenues than Taiwan’s electronic newspapers (Chan, 2015). Television news, electronic newspapers, and Yahoo news all rely on advertising revenues for operations. According to Dimmick’s niche theory (2003), when the resources used by populations are overlapped, these populations are in competition with one another. Using the theory of the niche as the theoretical framework, this study focuses on the gratifications obtained and the gratification opportunities of television news, electronic news, and Yahoo news to investigate the competitive relationships between these three news media.

2. Literature review 2.1. Niche theory, niche breadth, niche overlap, and competitive superiority A niche is defined as the resource utilization patterns of a population. According to organizational ecologists, the survival of an organization is more dependent on how well suited this organization is to its environment rather than on the organization’s internal operation. The theory of the niche is designed to explain fitness between a population that is defined as a group of organizations with similar characteristics and its environment. According to this definition, television news is a population as is electronic news. Based on the theory of the niche, a niche might have more than one dimension because a given population often consumes several types of resources (Dimmick, 2003, pp. 23–42; Gaskins and Jerit, 2012; Min and Kim, 2012). The niche theory has three key concepts including niche breadth, niche overlap, and competitive superiority. Niche breadth measures the area of a niche and contains both the quantity and the magnitude of resources used by a population. Populations that have a narrow niche are called specialists. Specialists tend to use their resources efficiently, but they are unable to make adjustments when the environments change significantly. By contrast, generalists, which consume many types of resources, are not particularly efficient resource users. Nonetheless, they have an ability to adjust themselves quickly to new environments when significant changes occur (Dimmick, 2003; Dimmick et al., 2010, 2011). Niche overlap is the degree to which one population uses the same resources in comparison to another population, and competitive superiority assesses the extent to which one population is superior to another population in terms of their resource-utilization capability. According to the theory of the niche, the data from the niche overlap and competitive superiority allow researchers to predict replacement behaviors. More specifically, a superior population will replace an inferior population when the niche overlap between the two populations is high. If the replacement is complete, competitive exclusion takes place. The phenomenon of competitive exclusion in the media industry is relatively rare. A more frequently occurring situation is competitive displacement that results in a part of the niche space being taken by a superior population (Dimmick, 2003; Dimmick et al., 2010, 2011). Please cite this article in press as: Li, S.-C.S. Replacement or complement: A niche analysis of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic news. Telemat. Informat. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.07.003

S.-C.S Li / Telematics and Informatics xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

3

2.2. Gratifications obtained and gratification opportunities The concept of gratifications obtained is similar to that of satisfactions in the uses and gratifications theory. The theory of the niche incorporates the concept of gratifications obtained into its assessment of resource-utilization ability of a population. According to the uses and gratifications theory, the satisfactions derived from using a medium are positively associated with the continuous use of that medium. Therefore, comparison of the degrees of the gratifications obtained from different media allows researchers to assess the differences in the capacity of these media to fulfill consumers’ needs and, thus, to analyze their competitive advantages (Dimmick, 2003, pp. 30–31; Dobos, 1992; Rubin, 1994). Gratification opportunities are concerned with the constraints of human time and space, which are defined as ‘‘properties of a medium that amplify or attenuate the opportunities for deriving gratifications from the medium” (Dimmick et al., 2004, p. 22). Therefore, if new media allow consumers to eliminate or reduce the constraints of time and space, they offer greater gratification opportunities than do old media (Dimmick, 2003, pp. 31–32). For example, mobile phones have greater gratification opportunities than landline phones because the former allow consumers to make contacts in almost any locations. 2.3. News niche, gratifications obtained, and gratification opportunities Empirical studies on the niche theory have found that competing media would try to differentiate themselves from one another when the competition among them would become too fierce to coexist in the same environment (Dimmick, 2003; Dimmick and Rothenbuhler, 1984). For example, Dimmick, Kline, and Stafford’s study (2000) showed that email and telephone were able to coexist because the telephone was perceived by the respondents to be superior with respect to its sociability gratification, whereas email was perceived to be better with respect to its gratification opportunities. Li (2001) examined the competition among television news, newspapers, and electronic newspapers in Taiwan and found that the fiercest competition existed between television news and newspaper news, but the respondents perceived the strengths of the two media differently, and thus, the two media were able to coexist. More specifically, authors found that television news was perceived to be superior with respect to its gratification opportunities and surveillance, while newspaper news was perceived to be better in terms of its interactive capacity and provision of easily processed information. Lee (2013) reviewed the literature on news consumption and identified four major types of gratifications that people obtained from news consumption, including information-oriented, entertainment-oriented, socially oriented, and opinionoriented gratifications. Information-oriented gratifications belong to instrumental uses and include gratifications such as information seeking, surveillance, and an issue or vote guidance, while entertainment-oriented gratifications are ritualistic uses and include gratifications such as relaxation, diversion, amusement, and habits. Socially oriented gratifications are also instrumental uses of news consumption and include gratifications related to interpersonal utilities aiming to be informed, to be sociable, and to know what issues others are talking about. Opinion-oriented gratifications belong to instrumental uses and are concerned with opinion formation or affirmation. Of the three news media, television news is the oldest news medium, but it is the most powerful one because television is capable of presenting news stories in appealing visual/audio forms. Furthermore, news channels are operated around the clock, and thus, television news has adequate time for the intensive analyses of important issues. In Taiwan, the penetration rates of cable television and MOD combined are approximately 75%, implying that television news has easy access to most people on the island. Therefore, television news can be considered the best among the three news media in terms of the informationoriented and opinion-oriented gratifications and two types of gratification opportunities, rich information and easy access. By contrast, Yahoo news can be considered as having the lowest scores of its niche breadth and competitive superiority with respect to the information-oriented and opinion-oriented gratifications and the two functions, rich information and easy access because Yahoo news provides only news and does not offer news analyses or investigative news reports to its users. Moreover, the majority of Yahoo news is presented in text forms, and news with a video is rare. Yahoo news and electronic news are Internet based news that is not as easily accessed by people compared to television news. Electronic newspapers are in between these two in terms of the information-oriented and opinion-oriented gratifications and the two functions, rich information and easy access. Although the Internet allows electronic newspapers to present news stories in multimedia forms, only a fraction of electronic news is delivered with video/audio presentation forms. Texts with graphics/pictures are still in the majority in electronic newspapers. Most electronic newspapers in Taiwan provide App’s versions for mobile devices, and thus, electronic newspapers can be more easily accessed by people than Yahoo news. Furthermore, electronic newspapers provide in-depth news analyses and investigative news reports, but they are not able to offer news programs in which experts are invited to discuss controversial issues. Based on the reasoning above, the following hypotheses have been developed: H1a. For the information-oriented and opinion-oriented gratifications, television news has higher scores of niche breadth and competitive superiority than electronic newspapers, which in turn have greater niche breadth and competitive superiority than Yahoo news.

H1b. For the gratification opportunities of rich information and easy access, television news has higher scores of niche breadth and competitive superiority than electronic newspapers, which in turn have greater niche breadth and competitive superiority than Yahoo news. Please cite this article in press as: Li, S.-C.S. Replacement or complement: A niche analysis of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic news. Telemat. Informat. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.07.003

4

S.-C.S Li / Telematics and Informatics xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Yahoo is a portal site, and, by adding news stories to its website, it is able to attract more people to visit, which allows Yahoo to generate more revenues. Past studies showed that the majority of people who visited Yahoo did so not to read news stories, but because they considered the news stories in Yahoo news interesting, entertaining, novel or updated (Chan, 2015; IKED of Shih Hsin University, 2015). Therefore, Yahoo news should be good at providing the gratifications of entertainment and sociability to its users. Furthermore, Yahoo as a portal site provides multiple functions for its users, such as search engines and hyperlinks, and thus, Yahoo news should be good at the function of interactivity, which is one type of gratification opportunity. Although Taiwan’s electronic newspapers primarily use the content of their print newspapers, electronic newspapers possess all the mechanisms of the Internet, such as interactivity, searching for news, or commenting on news, and hence, electronic newspapers should be superior to television news in terms of the gratifications of entertainment and sociability and the function of interactivity. Based on the reasoning above, this study develops the following hypotheses: H1c. For the gratifications of entertainment and sociability, Yahoo news will have higher scores of niche breadth and competitive superiority than electronic newspapers, which in turn will have greater niche breadth and competitive superiority than television news. H1d. For the gratification opportunities of interactivity, Yahoo news will have higher scores of niche breadth and competitive superiority than electronic newspapers, which in turn will have greater niche breadth and competitive superiority than television news. 2.4. Niche overlap, competitive superiority, and replacement behaviors Past studies on niche theory found that the competitive superiority scores of a medium were positively associated with the medium’s use frequency. In other words, past studies showed that the data of competitive superiority scores allow the researchers to predict consumers’ displacement behaviors (Gaskins and Jerit, 2012; Feaster, 2009; Lee, 2011). For example, Ha and Fang (2012) discovered that when the respondents perceived online news and traditional news media to be highly overlapped and online news to be superior to the traditional news media, these respondents tended to use online news more often than traditional news media, indicating that the respondents had gradually replaced the traditional news media with online news. Dimmick et al. (2004) found that approximately 69% of the subjects who indicated that they viewed television less frequently, also perceived the Internet to be better than television, and 70.6% of the subjects who indicated that they read newspapers less frequently, also perceived the Internet to be better than newspapers. Gaskins and Jerit (2012) examined the replacement between the traditional news media and Internet news and found that, as the respondents perceived Internet news to be superior to the traditional news media, they started using the traditional news media less often. More specifically, their study found that 44.3% of the respondents read newspapers less frequently when they began using Internet news, and approximately 40% of the respondents used radio news less often after they used Internet news. Based on the literature review above, this study predicts that the competitive superiority scores of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic newspapers will be positively correlated with the use frequencies of the three news media, respectively. Hence, the following hypothesis is developed: H2. The competitive superiority scores of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic newspapers will be positively associated with the respondents’ use frequencies of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic newspapers, respectively. Niche overlap measures the extent to which two populations compete with each other. Past studies showed that when the niche overlap between two populations was high, the data of competitive superiority scores would allow researchers to predict how displacement behaviors would occur (Dimmick, 2003, Dimmick et al., 2010, 2011). For example, Huang and Li (2013) examined three types of OTT (Over the top television) in Taiwan and found that YouTube had the highest competitive superiority scores, but the highest degree of competition existed between PPStream and ToDou, both of which were OTTs operated in mainland China. Therefore, their study concluded that the respondents perceived PPStream and ToDou to be more alike than YouTube, and thus, the displacement behaviors would occur between PPStream and ToDou instead of between PPStream and YouTube or between ToDou and YouTube. Ramirez et al. (2008) investigated the competition between four types of interpersonal communication technologies and discovered that the fiercest competition existed among email, cell phones, and instant messaging, but instant messaging had the highest scores of competitive superiority. Therefore, their study predicted that the respondents would gradually substitute their use of email and cell phones with instant messaging in the future. Based on the literature review above, this study reasons that Yahoo news and electronic newspapers are both Internet based news, and thus, they are more similar to each other than to television news. This study predicts that Yahoo news and electronic newspapers will have higher degrees of niche overlap than with television news. Therefore, the third hypothesis is developed as follows: H3. Yahoo news and electronic newspapers have higher degrees of overlap than with television news in all gratifications obtained and gratification opportunities.

Please cite this article in press as: Li, S.-C.S. Replacement or complement: A niche analysis of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic news. Telemat. Informat. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.07.003

S.-C.S Li / Telematics and Informatics xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

5

3. Research methodology 3.1. Intensive interviews for questionnaire design Yahoo news is a new type of news consumption for people, and no studies so far investigated what gratifications people obtained from Yahoo news. Therefore, this study conducted intensive interviews to understand what gratifications and gratification opportunities people obtained from Yahoo news, television news, and electronic newspapers. The intensive interviews were conducted in the following procedure: (1) This study referred to several studies on news consumption including Chan (2015), Dimmick et al. (2004), Gaskins and Jerit (2012), Ha and Fang (2012), Lee (2013), van der Wurff (2011), to identify the items for gratifications obtained and gratification opportunities. This study identified 18 items used by past studies, which were divided into five categories—information gratification, entertainment gratification, opinion gratification, social gratification, and gratification opportunities; and (2) when conducting interviews, this study would first let the interviewees to freely talk about what they were satisfied from the three news media and then used the 18 items for further probing. Using a snowballing method, this study recruited eleven females and eight males for intensive interviews. All the interviewees had experience using the three types of news media. This study was based on four criteria—gender, education, age, and occupations—to purposely recruit people with different backgrounds to diversify responses. The education levels of the interviewees ranged from a high school education to a master’s degree, and age varied from 20 to 40 years. The interviewees’ occupations included office workers, engineers, veterinarians, financial analysts, students, marketing specialists, secretaries, and housewives. After analyzing the interview data, this study chose the gratifications obtained or gratification opportunities that were mentioned by at least three interviewees as questionnaire items. This procedure allowed this study to formulate 21 items regarding gratifications and gratification opportunities people obtained from the three news media. This study used a seven-point Likert scale to measure the 21 items that were later used in the telephone survey. 3.2. Questionnaire items in the telephone survey The questionnaire had four sections. The first section had 63 items regarding gratifications and gratification opportunities people obtained from Yahoo news, television news, and electronic newspapers. The second section included three items asking the respondents to indicate how frequently they used Yahoo news, television news, and electronic newspapers. The third section contained items of five demographic variables including gender, age, education, personal income, and family income. The last section included items regarding the respondents’ mass media use including television, newspapers, magazines, radio, movies, and Internet use. 3.3. The telephone survey Using a computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) system, this study conducted a nationwide telephone survey in January of 2015 with 20 trained telephone interviewers administering the telephone interviews. The most updated telephone number database for Taiwan’s cities and counties was used to make telephone calls. This study made telephone calls only to landline phones and had added ‘‘1” to any number that was randomly selected by the CATI system to avoid the biases existing in the telephone database. Furthermore, this study adopted the method of proportionate stratified random sampling to recruit a more representative sample. Specifically, this method used the population percentage of each county or city in Taiwan as the basis to decide the number of valid questionnaires for each county or city. All the telephone interviewers were professional interviewers. However, students or nonprofessional interviewers were allowed to conduct the telephone calls after they had gone through several sessions of intensive training and had passed a test of qualification. The telephone survey was conducted in a central location and supervised by the researchers. This study obtained 1002 valid telephone calls with a response rate of 64.3%. This study found that among the 1002 respondents, 971 were regular users of television news, 955 were Yahoo news users, and 624 were regular users of electronic newspapers. 3.4. Factor analysis on gratifications obtained and gratification opportunities This study must obtain a uniform set of factors on gratifications obtained and gratification opportunities for the three news media, and thus, the method of confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) was chosen to achieve this goal. The following procedure was adopted to conduct the CFAs: (1) Three exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) were first conducted on the responses to the 21 items that measured gratifications and gratification opportunities the respondents obtained from each of the three news media. The results of EFAs demonstrated that a four-factor model of television news achieved the best outcomes in terms of factor loadings and percentage explained, and hence, this study used the four-factor model of television news as the basis to conduct three CFAs with the LISREL package. (2) Several criteria suggested by statisticians were used to measure the goodness of fit for CFAs; these criteria included RMSEA (<0.10), NFI (>0.90), IFI (>0.90), and CFI (>0.90) (Hair et al., 2006; Wu, 2007). The results of CFAs, summarized in Table 1, show that after deleting two items, all values of NFI, IFI, and CFI are above 0.90 and that the RMSEA values for the three news media were less than 0.10 (Hair et al., 2006; Wu, 2007). Please cite this article in press as: Li, S.-C.S. Replacement or complement: A niche analysis of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic news. Telemat. Informat. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.07.003

6

S.-C.S Li / Telematics and Informatics xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Table 1 Confirmatory factor analysis for three news media. Gratifications and opportunities

Yahoo

Electronic

TV

Factor 1: Easy access & rich information News is convenient to obtain To get the most updated news information I am used to use this news medium News contains rich information Graphics and videos help me understand News is easy to understand and absorb. Cronbach a

0.75 0.75 0.70 0.78 0.66 0.80 0.88

0.84 0.80 0.73 0.86 0.77 0.83 0.90

0.78 0.78 0.78 0.84 0.76 0.74 0.90

Factor 2: Information News credibility is high News quality is good News content is fair and objective Like the news format News content is comprehensive Cronbach a

0.82 0.86 0.85 0.57 0.83 0.89

0.84 0.88 0.86 0.57 0.86 0.90

0.76 0.87 0.84 0.61 0.74 0.87

Factor 3: Interactivity & sociability Purchasing products when reading news News is classified clearly To know others’ opinions on news News redundancy is low Cronbach a

0.54 0.78 0.58 0.65 0.72

0.71 0.83 0.64 0.72 0.81

0.56 0.81 0.72 0.59 0.76

Factor 4: Entertainment Viewing news without advertisements Quick to understand news points News titles are attractive Able to select news that is interesting Cronbach a

0.61 0.82 0.71 0.76 0.80

0.67 0.88 0.83 0.85 0.88

0.61 0.79 0.79 0.75 0.83

1024.29 146 0.079 0.98 0.98 0.98

896.24 146 0.090 0.98 0.98 0.98

824.35 146 0.069 0.98 0.98 0.98

Goodness of fit

v2 Df RMSEA NFI IFI CFI

The first factor was referred to as easy access & rich information, and the second factor was named an information related gratification. The third factor was referred to as interactivity & sociability and the last factor was named an entertainmentrelated gratification. 3.5. Niche breadth, niche overlap, and competitive superiority This study used the respondents’ perceived level of gratifications and gratification opportunities that were interval data to calculate niche breadth, niche overlap, and competitive superiority. The formula (Appendix 1) developed by Dimmick (2003, p. 79) was used to calculate the scores of the niche breadth for television news, electronic newspapers, and Yahoo news. A medium with higher scores from this formula indicates that this medium has wider niche breadths. Niche overlap was calculated by the formula (Appendix 2) developed by Dimmick (2003, p. 79), and a lower score calculated from this formula indicated that a higher degree of niche overlap existed between two media. The scores of competitive superiority for the three media were calculated using the formula (Appendix 3) developed by Dimmick (2003, p. 80). The competitive superiority formula contains two sub-formulas, SUPERIORITY Si>j and SUPERIORITY Sj>i . The first sub-formula is used to calculate the score that medium i is superior to medium j, while the second sub-formula is used to calculate the score that medium j is superior to medium i. When the score calculated from SUPERIORITY Si>j is higher than that from SUPERIORITY Sj>i and the means of medium i and medium j are significantly different in a t-test, then medium I can be claimed to be superior to medium j (Dimmick, 2003, pp. 80–81). 3.6. The sample profile Of the 1002 respondents, 41.1% were males, and the remaining 58.9% were females. As for age, 11.4% of the respondents were between 16 and 20 years old, 17.1% were between 21 and 30 years old, 22.6% were between 31 and 40 years old, 23.6% were between 41 and 50 years old, and the remaining 25.5% were older than 50. As for education, 3.1% of the respondents received junior-high school education, 42.5% received senior-high school education, 40.3% Please cite this article in press as: Li, S.-C.S. Replacement or complement: A niche analysis of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic news. Telemat. Informat. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.07.003

7

S.-C.S Li / Telematics and Informatics xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

received college education, and 13.2% received graduate school education. This study compared this sample profile with Taiwan’s population of 2014, and the data were summarized in Table I of the Appendix 4. Table I indicates that this sample profile differed from Taiwan’s population in the following three aspects: (1) Female respondents were overrepresented in this sample; (2) respondents who were older than 55 years old were less represented in this sample; and (3) the respondents of this sample were better educated than the overall Taiwan’s population (Monthly Report from the Executive Yuan, 2015). This study telephone interviewed only those respondents who used regularly at least two of the three news media, and thus, this sample profile was more similar to the Internet population than to Taiwan’s population. 4. Research findings 4.1. Niche breadth, niche overlap, and competitive superiority Based on the factor analyses, this study identified four niche dimensions, the first of which is easy access & rich information that had six items. This niche dimension was concerned with two issues; one issue was the ease of access to a news medium, and the other issue was the richness of information conveyed by this news medium (e.g. news with graphics/videos or information that was easy to understand). The second niche dimension contained five items and is an information related gratification that addressed the value of information derived from news stories, such as credibility, quality, comprehensiveness, fairness and objectivity. The third niche dimension contained five items and was named interactivity & sociability which stressed two issues; one issue was concerned with the interactive mechanism of the Internet that allowed the respondents to classify news, to avoid redundant news stories, and to purchase products when reading news, and the other issue was regarding knowing opinions of others about a news story. The last dimension contained four items and was named an entertainment-related gratification that addressed the entertainment related gratification of using news. By using Dimmick’s formulas, this study calculated the niche breadth, the niche overlap, and the competitive superiority of the four gratifications obtained and gratification opportunities for the three news media. The scores of the niche breadth, the niche overlap, and the competitive superiority are summarized in Tables 2–4. The data in Table 2 show that for the first two factors, namely, easy access & rich information and information related gratification, television news had the widest niche breadth, followed by Yahoo news, and electronic newspapers had the narrowest niche breadth. For the remaining two factors, namely, interactivity & sociability and entertainment related gratification, Table 2 demonstrates that Yahoo news had the widest niche breadth, followed by electronic newspapers, and television news had the narrowest niche breadth. For niche overlap, the data in Table 3 show that among the three news media, the highest degrees of niche overlap existed between Yahoo news and electronic newspapers for the four factors. For the competitive superiority, the data in Table 4 show that television news had higher superiority scores than Yahoo news, which in turn had higher superiority scores than electronic newspapers for the two factors, easy access & rich information and information related gratification. While

Table 2 Niche breadth for Yahoo news, TV news, and electronic news.

Easy access & rich information Information Interactivity & sociability Entertainment N of respondents

Yahoo

Television

Electronic

0.658 0.492 0.649 0.702 960

0.685 0.521 0.370 0.535 971

0.548 0.455 0.550 0.586 624

Table 2-1: ANOVA among the three news media on four niche dimensions Group N

⁄

TV > Yahoo > Electronic TV > Yahoo > Electronic Yahoo > Electronic > TV Yahoo > Electronic > TV

Mean

F-value

Significant from

Easy access & rich information

1. Yahoo 2. Electronic 3. TV

957 630 974

29.6322 25.6063 30.6509

75.345⁄⁄⁄

1–2(0.000⁄⁄⁄) 1–3(0.007⁄⁄) 2–3(0.000⁄⁄⁄)

Information

1. Yahoo 2. Electronic 3. TV

947 627 969

19.7994 18.6507 20.6698

17.503⁄⁄⁄

1–2(0.001⁄⁄) 1–3(0.004⁄⁄) 2–3(0.000⁄⁄⁄)

Interactivity & sociability

1. Yahoo 2. Electronic 3. TV

955 631 969

19.5906 17.1458 12.8947

377.981⁄⁄⁄

1–2(0.000⁄⁄⁄) 1–3(0.000⁄⁄⁄) 2–3(0.000⁄⁄⁄)

Entertainment

1. Yahoo 2. Electronic 3. TV

958 633 973

20.8152 17.9905 16.8561

126.914⁄⁄⁄

1–2(0.000⁄⁄⁄) 1–3(0.000⁄⁄⁄) 2–3(0.000⁄⁄⁄)

p < 0.05,

⁄⁄

p < 0.01,

⁄⁄⁄

p < 0.001.

Please cite this article in press as: Li, S.-C.S. Replacement or complement: A niche analysis of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic news. Telemat. Informat. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.07.003

8

S.-C.S Li / Telematics and Informatics xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Table 3 Niche overlap scores for Yahoo news, TV news, and electronic news.

Easy access & rich information Information Interactivity & sociability Entertainment N of Respondents

Yahoo/electronic

Electronic/TV

TV/Yahoo

1.579 1.004 1.240 1.352 596

2.170 1.662 2.310 2.089 615

1.810 1.465 2.493 2.075 936

Table 4 Competitive superiority. Factor

Yahoo/Electronic

Electronic/TV

TV/Yahoo

Easy access & rich information

Yahoo > Electronic 19.871/6.631 t = 10.660⁄⁄⁄, N = 596

Electronic < TV 9.120/21.854 t =
10.547⁄⁄⁄, N = 615

TV > Yahoo 17.753/13.522 t = 2.998⁄⁄, N = 936

Yahoo > Electronic 8.320/5.799 t = 3.990⁄⁄⁄, N = 596

Electronic < TV 7.176/12.498 t =
5.670⁄⁄⁄, N = 615

TV > Yahoo 11.817/7.918 t = 4.114⁄⁄⁄, N = 936

Yahoo > Electronic 10.784/2.993 t = 10.911⁄⁄⁄, N = 596

Electronic > TV 13.925/3.345 t = 15.648⁄⁄⁄, N = 615

TV < Yahoo 1.761/17.326 t =
33.287 ⁄⁄⁄, N = 936

Yahoo > Electronic 11.143/3.988 t = 10.040⁄⁄⁄, N = 596

Electronic > TV 12.390/6.341 t = 4.748⁄⁄⁄, N = 615

TV < Yahoo 3.675/16.544 t =
19.818⁄, N = 936

TV news > Yahoo news > Electronic news Information

TV news > Yahoo news > Electronic news Interactivity & sociability

Yahoo news > Electronic news > TV news Entertainment

Yahoo news > Electronic news > TV news ⁄

p < 0.05,

⁄⁄

p < 0.01,

⁄⁄⁄

p < 0.001.

for the remaining two factors, interactivity & sociability and entertainment related gratification, Table 4 demonstrates that Yahoo news had higher superiority scores than electronic newspapers, which in turn had higher superiority scores than television news.

4.2. Individuals’ superiority scores and replacement behaviors The formulas of competitive superiority developed by Dimmick (2003, p. 80) are to sum up all the respondents’ ratings, which are superiority scores for a medium and not for individuals. This study had to calculate individuals’ superiority scores to investigate the relationship between individuals’ superiority scores and their replacement behaviors. This study followed the approach of Gaskins and Jerit (2012) of measuring individuals’ superiority scores, which was to subtract an individual’s rating for gratifications, such as on the information related gratification of Yahoo news, from the rating of the same gratification of television news to obtain the superiority score of television news for this individual. This study had three types of news media and four gratifications and gratification opportunities, and thus, this study yielded twelve individual superiority scores. Using the twelve individual superiority scores as dependent variables, this study conducted twelve hierarchical multiple regression analyses with the use frequencies of the three news media as independent variables, and demographics as control variables. The results are summarized in Table 5. The data in Table 5 show that for Yahoo news versus electronic news, the superiority scores of Yahoo news were positively associated with the use frequencies of Yahoo news but negatively associated with the use frequencies of electronic news for the four factors. Similarly, for electronic news versus television news, Table 5 demonstrates that the superiority scores of electronic news were positively correlated with the use frequencies of electronic news but negatively correlated with the use frequencies of television news for the four factors. For television news versus Yahoo news, the superiority scores of television news were found to be positively correlated with the use frequencies of television news but negatively correlated with the use frequencies of Yahoo news for the four factors. Moreover, after including demographics in the regression analyses, this study found that demographics played a minor role in predicting uses of the three news media, accounting for only 1–3.6% variances. However, individual superiority scores played a major role in terms of the three news media use, accounting for 7.4–43.5% variances. Please cite this article in press as: Li, S.-C.S. Replacement or complement: A niche analysis of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic news. Telemat. Informat. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.07.003

Demographics Age Edu Gender R Adjusted R2 News media use Yahoo News Electronic news TV news R Adjusted R2 Increase adjusted R2 Sample Size

Y/E(1)

Y/E (2)

Y/E (3)

Y/E (4)

E/T(1)

E/T(2)

E/T(3)

E/T(4)

T/Y(1)

T/Y(2)

T/Y(3)

T/Y(4)

0.031
0.091⁄⁄
0.001 0.127⁄ 0.011

0.132⁄⁄
0.096⁄
0.033 0.176⁄⁄ 0.025

0.043
0.087⁄
0.098⁄ 0.123⁄ 0.010

0.086⁄
0.099⁄⁄
0.018 0.149⁄⁄ 0.017

0.028 0.012
0.030 0.144⁄⁄ 0.015


0.001
0.005
0.013 0.085 0.002


0.058 0.115⁄⁄ 0.057 0.203⁄⁄⁄ 0.036

0.022 0.080⁄
0.018 0.155⁄⁄ 0.019


0.021
0.017 0.011 0.129⁄⁄ 0.013


0.130⁄⁄⁄ 0.003 0.042 0.115⁄⁄ 0.010

0.037
0.133⁄⁄⁄ 0.010 0.180⁄⁄⁄ 0.029


0.074⁄
0.080⁄ 0.026 0.145⁄⁄⁄ 0.018

0.565⁄⁄⁄
0.606⁄⁄⁄

0.228⁄⁄⁄
0.276⁄⁄⁄

0.371⁄⁄⁄
0.446⁄⁄⁄

0.434⁄⁄⁄
0.478⁄⁄⁄


0.211⁄⁄⁄

0.536⁄⁄⁄ 0.281 0.264 533

0.300⁄⁄⁄
0.300⁄⁄⁄ 0.442⁄⁄⁄ 0.188 0.169 556


0.152⁄⁄⁄

0.482⁄⁄⁄ 0.225 0.215 532

0.288⁄⁄⁄
0.143⁄⁄⁄ 0.373⁄⁄⁄ 0.132 0.096 556


0.161⁄⁄⁄

0.337⁄⁄⁄ 0.105 0.080 528

0.255⁄⁄⁄
0.309⁄⁄⁄ 0.397⁄⁄⁄ 0.150 0.148 553


0.411⁄⁄⁄

0.671⁄⁄⁄ 0.446 0.435 531

0.477⁄⁄⁄
0.458⁄⁄⁄ 0.661⁄⁄⁄ 0.431 0.416 555

0.482⁄⁄⁄ 0.616⁄⁄⁄ 0.376 0.363 914

0.240⁄⁄⁄ 0.299⁄⁄⁄ 0.084 0.074 902

0.141⁄⁄⁄ 0.267⁄⁄⁄ 0.066 0.037 909

0.317⁄⁄⁄ 0.392⁄⁄⁄ 0.149 0.131 914

* = p < 0.05, ⁄⁄ = p < 0.01, ⁄⁄⁄ = p < 0.001. Y/E(1) = Yahoo news’ ratings on factor 1 – Electronic news’ rating on factor 1. E/T(2) = Electronic news’ ratings on factor 2 – TV news’ rating on factor 2. T/Y(3) = TV news’ ratings on factor 3 – Yahoo news’ rating on factor 3.

S.-C.S Li / Telematics and Informatics xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 9

Please cite this article in press as: Li, S.-C.S. Replacement or complement: A niche analysis of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic news. Telemat. Informat. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.07.003

Table 5 Regression analyses on individuals’ superiority scores and use frequency of news media.

10

S.-C.S Li / Telematics and Informatics xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

5. Discussion 5.1. News media, niche breadth, and competitive superiority As predicted in H1a this study found that for the information-oriented gratification, television news had higher scores of niche breadth and competitive superiority than Yahoo news, which in turn had higher scores of niche breadth and competitive superiority than electronic newspapers. However, this study did not find an opinion-oriented gratification from the data analysis. Hence, H1a was partially supported. This study’s data showed that television news was regarded by the respondents as the best medium to obtain an information-oriented gratification, which is consistent with the past studies’ findings. Past studies found that television was the most used source by which the general American public obtains news, and the most important motivation to consume news by the general American adults was to obtain information-related gratifications (Bailey et al., 2013; Lee, 2013). Similarly, recent studies in Taiwan also showed that television news was the most used medium by which the general public obtained news, and it was perceived to be the best source for providing the gratification of surveillance, which was one type of information-related gratification (Li, 2001; IKED of Shih Hsin University, 2015). Surprisingly, this study did not find an opinion-oriented gratification from the data analysis. A possible explanation for this unexpected finding is that opinion formation or opinion affirmation might be the least important gratification for people to obtain when consuming news because some studies found that an opinion-oriented gratification was regarded as the least important motivation driving people to consume news (Lee, 2013; IKED of Shih Hsin University, 2015). Another possible explanation is that news media is good at facilitating awareness of news issues, while for opinion formation or affirmation, most people may be influenced by their friends, colleagues, or family members rather than by the news media. As expected by H1c, this study discovered that Yahoo news had higher scores of niche breadth and competitive superiority than electronic newspapers, which in turn had higher scores of niche breadth and competitive superiority than television news. Hence, H1c was supported. This study found that Yahoo news was perceived by the respondents as the best medium to obtain the gratifications of entertainment and sociability, followed by electronic newspapers, and television news was regarded as the least appropriate medium for people to obtain these two gratifications. These findings were congruent with recent studies in Taiwan, which showed that most college students used Yahoo news as their primary news source, and they were attracted to Yahoo news not for information but for entertainment and social reasons (Chan, 2015; IKED of Shih Hsin University, 2015). As expected by H1b, for the two gratification opportunities, rich information and easy access, this study found that television news had higher scores of niche breadth and competitive superiority than Yahoo news, which in turn had higher scores of niche breadth and competitive superiority than electronic newspapers. Therefore, H1b was supported. For another gratification opportunity, interactivity, this study discovered that Yahoo news had higher scores of niche breadth and competitive superiority than electronic newspapers, which in turn had higher scores of niche breadth and competitive superiority than television news. Hence, H1d was supported. This study found that the respondents perceived television news to be the best medium in terms of providing rich information and being easily accessed, which is consistent with the status quo in Taiwan. As stated previously, television presents news stories with visual/audio forms, which allows people to easily absorb news information and to not worry about the language barriers. Hence, this study found that the respondents perceived the provision of rich information to be one of the strengths of television news. Furthermore, it is much easier for people to operate television remote controls than to use monitors to connect to the Internet for news consumption. Moreover, fifteen news channels are available in Taiwan, and many public locations such as railway stations, McDonalds, or hospitals offer television news. Therefore, this study found that the respondents perceived television news to be much more easily accessed than the other two news media. As for the function of interactivity, this study found that Yahoo news was perceived by the respondents to be superior to electronic newspapers, and television news had the lowest superiority score in this function, which is congruent with the nature of the Internet technologies. Yahoo news and electronic newspapers are Internet based news, both of which possess all the mechanisms of the Internet to allow users to interact with news stories. For example, Yahoo news and electronic newspapers allow users to share a news story with friends in Facebook, Twitter, Weibo, and Google, to read relevant news stories after finishing viewing a specific news story, and to comment and view comments of others on news stories. Furthermore, Yahoo news provides to users the lists of the most read political news, financial news, entertainment news, etc. The data from the intensive interviews also indicated that people were satisfied with Yahoo’s classification mechanism of the news stories that allowed them to easily find the news stories they wanted. Furthermore, the respondents regarded it as an advantage that they were able to browse shopping information while reading news in Yahoo news or electronic newspapers. Therefore, this study found that for the function of interactivity, Yahoo news was considered the best medium, followed by electronic newspapers, and television news received the lowest score for this function.

5.2. Niche overlap, competitive superiority and replacement behaviors As predicted by H2, the data in Table 5 show that competitive superiority scores of the three news media were positively correlated with the use frequencies of the three news media, respectively. In addition, Yahoo news and electronic newspaPlease cite this article in press as: Li, S.-C.S. Replacement or complement: A niche analysis of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic news. Telemat. Informat. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.07.003

S.-C.S Li / Telematics and Informatics xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

11

pers were discovered to have the highest degrees of competition among the three news media, and hence, H3 was supported by the data. This study discovered that for a news medium, the superiority scores of the gratifications obtained or gratification opportunities were significant predictors of the use frequency of that news medium. For example, Table 5 demonstrates that the superiority scores of Yahoo news versus electronic newspapers on the four gratifications obtained or gratification opportunities were positively associated with how often the respondents used Yahoo news but negatively associated with how often the respondents used electronic newspapers. Similarly, the superiority scores of television news versus Yahoo news were found to be positively correlated with how often the respondents used television news but negatively correlated with how often the respondents used Yahoo news. These findings are congruent with the notion of the theory of the niche that the respondents’ perception of one medium’s superiority over another medium leads users to replace another medium with this medium. In other words, this study found that the measure of competitive superiority allows the researchers to predict how replacement behaviors occur (Dimmick et al., 2004; Ha and Fang, 2012; Lee, 2011). For the competitive relationship between the three news media, this study found that the respondents perceived Yahoo news and television news to be equally superior because television news was perceived to be superior to Yahoo news in terms of the first two factors, namely, easy access & rich information and the information related gratification, while Yahoo news was perceived to be better than television news regarding the remaining two factors—interactivity & sociability and the entertainment related gratification. Furthermore, this study discovered that the fiercest competition between the three news media existed between Yahoo news and electronic newspapers. Therefore, it can be concluded that television news and Yahoo news were equally powerful news media in Taiwan, but they would be able to coexist in Taiwan’s news market because the respondents perceived the strengths of the two news media to be very different. In general, this study found that television news and Yahoo news had equally wide niche breadths and competitive superiority, and thus, they can be classified as generalists, whereas electronic newspapers were specialists because they had narrow niche breadths. With the highest degrees of niche overlap existing between Yahoo news and electronic newspapers, this study predicts that Yahoo news will continue to take part of the niche space from electronic newspapers. For electronic newspapers to survive, they need to enhance their interactive functions and their mechanisms for sociability to attract consumers to visit their websites. 6. Conclusions This study adopted the theory of the niche to investigate the competitive relationship between three news media—Yahoo news, television news, and electronic newspapers. The major findings from the data analysis were that (1) Yahoo news did not produce its own news, but it was perceived by the respondents to be equivalent to television news. Furthermore, Yahoo news and television news were equally powerful news media, but the two media would be able to coexist in Taiwan’s news media market because the respondents perceived the strengths of the two news media to be very different. (2) From the data of niche breadth, niche overlap, and competitive superiority, this study classified Yahoo news and television news to be generalists, while electronic newspapers were specialists. For electronic newspapers to survive in Taiwan’s news market, electronic newspapers need to design their websites in a manner that will attract consumers who are interested in obtaining the gratifications of entertainment, sociability, and interactivity. (3) This study found that the theory of the niche was a useful theoretical approach for scholars to examine the competitive relationships among different media. By examining the niche breadth, the niche overlap, and the competitive superiority, scholars were able to identify the weaknesses and strengths of different media, which allows these media to understand how to fortify their competitive capability. The significant contribution this study has done to advance the existing literature of the niche theory is the findings, showing that individuals’ perceived superiority of medium A versus medium B was a positive predictor of medium A’s use frequency but a negative predictor of medium B’s use frequency. Past studies that adopted Dimmick (2003)’s formulars only allowed scholars to calculate the superiority scores for a medium, not for individuals. This study calculated individuals’ superiority scores and found significant relationships between individuals’ superiority scores and their replacement behaviors for the four niche dimensions. This study has some limitations, including the fact that this study only examined two resource dimensions, gratifications obtained and gratification opportunities. However, Dimmick (2003) identifies six resource dimensions in the media industry. Therefore, the findings of this study only reflect part of the picture regarding the competitive relationship between Yahoo news, television news and electronic newspapers. Future studies should use more than two resource dimensions to better understand the competition among the different media such as Kim, Kim, and Nam’s study (2016) that included three resource dimensions--gratification, gratification opportunities, and time spent using the media—to investigate the competition between traditional pay TV and over-the-top (OTT) services. Appendix 1. Niche breadth

XN n¼1

B¼

2XK 4



3

GOn
Kl k¼1 5 Kðu
1Þ

N

where: (Dimmick, 2003, p. 79) Please cite this article in press as: Li, S.-C.S. Replacement or complement: A niche analysis of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic news. Telemat. Informat. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.07.003

12

S.-C.S Li / Telematics and Informatics xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

u, l = the upper and lower bounds of a scale (e.g., 7 and 1). GO = a gratification obtained rating on a scale. N = the number of respondents using a medium. n = the first respondent. K = the number of scales on a dimension, k = the first gratification scale. Appendix 2. Niche overlap

XN Oi;j ¼

n¼1

rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi XK ðGO
GO Þ2 i

k¼1

j

K

N

where: (Dimmick, 2003, p. 79) i, j = medium i and medium j. GO = a gratification obtained rating on a scale for i and j. N = the number of respondents who use both i and j. n = the first respondent. Appendix 3

XN XK SUPERIORITY Si>j ¼

n¼1

k¼1

XN XK SUPERIORITY Sj>i ¼

ðm¼i>j Þ

N

n¼1

k¼1

ðm¼j>i Þ

N

where: (Dimmick, 2003, p. 80) i, j = medium i and j. m i > j = the value of a respondent’s rating for those scale items on which i is rate greater than j (the sum of the actual values). m j > i = the value of a respondent’s rating for those scale items on which j is rate greater than i (the sum of the actual values). K = the number of scales on a dimension, k = the first gratification scale N = the number of respondents who use both i and j. Appendix 4 Table I Comparison between Taiwan’s population and the sample profiles. Ministry of the Interior (2014). Resident Population by Single Year of Age. Retrieved April 6, 2016, from http://sowf.moi.gov.tw/stat/month/list.htm. 2014Taiwan’s population profile

Sample profile

Sex

Male Female

49.92% 50.08%

Male Female

41.05% 58.95%

Age

16–20 21–25 26–30 31–35 36–40 41–45 46–50 51–55 >55

6.64% 6.83% 7.05% 8.60% 8.21% 7.73% 7.90% 7.92% 23.93%

16–20 21–25 26–30 31–35 36–40 41–45 46–50 51–55 >55

11.38% 8.68% 8.38% 10.68% 11.88% 10.78% 12.77% 10.08% 15.37%

Education

No education Elementary school Junior high school Senior high school Vocational school College Graduate school

1.5% 12.58% 12.73% 30.61% 11.98% 24.16% 6.14%

No education Elementary school Junior high school Senior high school Vocational school College Graduate school

0.10% 0.51% 3.13% 22.83% 20.10% 40.81% 12.53%

Please cite this article in press as: Li, S.-C.S. Replacement or complement: A niche analysis of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic news. Telemat. Informat. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.07.003

S.-C.S Li / Telematics and Informatics xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

13

References Bailey, R.L., Fox, J.R., Grabe, M.E., 2013. The influence of message and audience characteristics on TV news grazing behavior. J. Broadcast. Electron. Media 57 (3), 318–337. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2013.816704. Chan, T.C., 2015. A niche analysis on the competition among Yahoo, Facebook, and LINE: a study on Taiwan’s news platforms. Available at: . Dimmick, J.W., 2003. Media Competition and Coexistence: The Theory of the Niche. Lawrence Erbaum, Mahwah, NJ. Dimmick, J., Rothenbuhler, E., 1984. Competitive displacement in the communication industries: new media in old environments. In: Rice, R., Associates (Eds.), The New Media: Communication Research and Technology. Sage, Beverly Hills, CA, pp. 287–304. Dimmick, J., Kline, S., Stafford, L., 2000. The gratification niches of personal e-mail and the telephone. Commun. Res. 27 (2), 227–248. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1177/009365000027002005. Dimmick, J., Chen, Y., Li, Z., 2004. Competition between the internet and traditional news media: the gratification-opportunities niche dimension. J. Media Econ. 17 (1), 19–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327736me1701_2. Dimmick, J., Feaster, J.C., Hoplamazian, G.J., 2010. News in the interstices: the niches of mobile media in space and time. New Media Soc. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1177/1461444810363452. Dimmick, J., Feaster, J.C., Ramirez, A., 2011. The niches of interpersonal media: relationships in space and time. New Media Soc. 13 (8), 1265–1282. http://dx. doi.org/10.1177/1461444811403445. Dobos, J., 1992. Gratification models of satisfaction and choice of communication channels in organizations. Commun. Res. 19 (1), 29–51. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1177/009365092019001002. Executive Yuan of Taiwan, 2015. Monthly report from the department of household registration, M.O.I. of Taiwan. Available at: . Feaster, J.C., 2009. The repertoire niches of interpersonal media: competition and coexistence at the level of the individual. New Media Soc. 11 (6), 965–984. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444809336549. Gaskins, B., Jerit, J., 2012. Internet news: is it a replacement for traditional media outlets? Int. J. Press Politics 17 (2), 190–213. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 1940161211434640. Ha, L., Fang, L., 2012. Internet experience and time displacement of traditional news media use: an application of the theory of the niche. Telematics Inform. 29 (2), 177–186. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1940161211434640. Hair, J.F., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L., 2006. Multivariate Data Analysis, vol. 6. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Huang, P.T., Li, S.S., 2013. A niche analysis of the competition among PPStream, Tudou, and YouTube: A study of the Internet protocol television Industry in Taiwan. Chin. J. Commun. Res. 24, 3–37 (in Chinese). http://dx.doi.org/10.6195/cjcr.2013.24.06. IKED of Shih Hsin University, 2015. Media usage behaviors among college students [Video file]. Available at: . Kim, J., Kim, S., Nam, C., 2016. Competitive dynamics in the Korean video platform market: traditional pay TV platforms vs. OTT platforms. Telematics Inf. 33 (2016), 711–721. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2015.06.014. Lee, Y.C., 2011. Competitive relationships between traditional and contemporary telecommunication services in Taiwan. Telecommun. Policy 35, 543–554. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2011.04.017. Lee, A.M., 2013. News audiences revisited: theorizing the link between audience motivations and news consumption. J. Broadcast. Electron. Media 57 (3), 300–317. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2013.816712. Li, S.S., 2001. New media and market competition: A niche analysis of TV news, electronic news, and newspaper news in Taiwan. J. Broadcast. Electron. Media 45 (2), 259–276. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4502_46. Li, S.S., Lee, C.Y., 2010. Market uncertainty and mimetic isomorphism in the newspaper industry: A study of Taiwan’s mainstream newspapers from 1992 to 2003. Asian J. Commun. 20 (3), 367–384. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01292981003802218. Min, S.J., Kim, J.M., 2012. Choosing the right media for mobilization: issue advocacy groups’ media niche in the competitive media environment. Mass Commun. Soc. 15 (2), 225–244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2008.06.001. National Communications Commission, 2015. The number of cable television subscribers and the penetration rates for digital set-top box in 104Q2. Available at: http://www.ncc.gov.tw/chinese/news_detail.aspx?site_content_sn=1979&is_history=0&pages=0&sn_f=34022. Ramirez, A., Dimmick, J., Feaster, J., Lin, S.F., 2008. Revisiting interpersonal media competition the gratification niches of instant messaging, e-mail, and the telephone. Commun. Res. 35 (4), 529–547. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0093650208315979. Rubin, A.M., 1994. Media uses and effects: a uses-and-gratifications perspective. In: Bryant, J., Zillmann, D. (Eds.), Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey, pp. 417–436. van der Wurff, R., 2011. Are news media substitutes? Gratifications, contents, and uses. J. Media Econ. 24, 139–157. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/ 08997764.2011.601974. Wu, M.L., 2007. Structural Equation Modeling: Amos Operation and Application, first ed. Wu Nan Book Inc., Taipei, Taiwan.

Please cite this article in press as: Li, S.-C.S. Replacement or complement: A niche analysis of Yahoo news, television news, and electronic news. Telemat. Informat. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.07.003