Television networks are slowly waking up to the importance of grown-up viewers as their audiences fragment and decline. They’re affluent and more loyal to legacy media…or so they thought. Turns out adults are getting tougher to reach through traditional channels according to a Multichannel News report. Citing research from Wolf Resource Group, the article notes that adults 25 to 54 spend more time online than do younger demos–even though the kids are thought of as the Internet generation. Other highlights:

• 42 percent of YouTube’s audience is 35 to 54
• 30 percent of Boomers participate in user-generated content–although just 10 percent create content themselves
• Adults age 35 to 49 are the biggest users of digital video recorders–31 percent use them at least once a week, compared with just 26 percent among 18 to 34-year-olds.

Marketers will miss out if they rely only on traditional legacy media to reach lucrative Boomer audiences–especially as younger Boomers edge into the 50+ category.

More evidence that venture capitalists are focusing on the 50+ market surfaced this week with the launch of Caring.com. The site takes aim at one of the most pressing, but problematic, Boomer information needs–caring for aging parents. Caring.com is the brainchild of Andy Cohen, a former manager at Intuit, and aims to provide resources for caregivers with elderly family members. The company raised $6 million in launch funds and went live earlier this week.

There are plenty of regional caregiver information resources around the country. But no one has yet successfully cracked the national market–even though the long-distance information need is real, with adult children struggling to provide care to parents hundreds or thousands of miles away. The opportunity is big, with Caring.com citing figures stating that 34 million adults provide “personal aid, financial assistance, or both, to an older family member.”

Here are the challenges:

• Much of the caregiver advertising market is local, not national. Obvious categories include the various segments of senior housing, health care and medical providers, and financial advisers.
• Big brand advertisers confuse the Boomer and senior demographics. Caregivers may be Boomers, but all those images of wheelchairs and walkers put off marketers of luxury goods, high end retailers, etc.
• Few caregivers identify themselves as such, and their information need often pops up in a crisis environment. That presents interesting audience development challenges.

News coverage of Caring.com’s launch is at Advertising Age, Reuters and CNET.

My column in today’s Chicago Sun-Times deals with the new wave of explosive growth among health information websites. The trend is fueled by the growing number of mid-life Americans who see the web as a primary source of guidance on health matters. Earlier post on Focalyst research documenting the trend is here.

So, that’s how it is: CBS News legend Walter Cronkite will be contributing weekly commentary to “Daily Cafe,” a live two-hour program produced by Retirement TV out of Washington. He’ll focus on politics, education, healthcare, foreign policy and the environment, according to the announcement.

Baltimore ad agency Planit is posting a series of podcasts focused on the Boomer market to promote its Mature Market division. The first program features an interview with Susan Ayers Walker, technology writer for AARP.org and founder of the SmartSilvers Alliance. Susan talks about ecommerce and other consumer technologies, and how to tailor campaigns to Boomers. Planit plans to distribute the podcast series on iTunes, and will be doing four more episodes in the monhs ahead. Note to Planit: cool idea, but your “Mature Market” group needs a different name. “Mature” won’t fly in the Boomer space.

The holiday shopping season is swinging into gear, and Baby Boomer bargain hunters are fueling a big gain in traffic at e-commerce sites. Traffic monitoring service Hitwise reported a 56 percent surge in marketshare for the week ended November 3rd. The gain was driven mainly by online shoppers over age 45 with the share of traffic from that age demo up 38 percent compared with a year ago.

“As we enter the holiday shopping season, consumers are beginning to research potential gift purchases and compare prices earlier than last year especially with retailers beginning to roll out seasonal promotions,” said Heather Dougherty, director of research at Hitwise. “Baby boomers are the main visitors of comparison shopping websites and our search term data indicates that consumer electronics continue to be popular amongst these comparison shoppers.

Biggest marketshare gainer in teh 45+ category was Shopzilla, where traffic was up 58 percent during the measured period, compared with a year ago. Shopzilla is owned by diversfied media company E.W. Scripps.

Detail on the Hitwise study, including rankings of the top e-commerce sites and brands, is here.