RSSAnalysts: Online news viewers rising as newspaper readership falls
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published September 5, 2008, 7:06 PM
Newspaper readership is down -- especially among younger adults -- and so is newspaper circulation. But online TV viewing is on the rise overall, with news the most popular content category.
Consumers seem to be getting more of their news online these days and less of it from newspapers and traditional broadcast TV, suggest the results of some industry surveys.
About 20% of US households now use the Internet for TV viewing, almost double the online viewership as two years ago, according to a study released this week by The Conference Board and TNS.
In tracking online viewing across types of content, the survey found that the largest number of people (43%) tune in to news. Other results tallied included 39% for drama shows, 34% for sitcom/comedy shows, 23% for reality shows, 16% for sports, and 15% for user-generated content.
Almost nine out of ten online TV viewers do their viewing at home, while smaller percentages do so at work or in other locations, such as the library or a friend's home. The most popular methods for viewing content turned out to be streaming video (68%) and free download (38%).
Without mentioning alternatives such as digital video recorders (DVRs), the survey cited being able to watch broadcasts at their own convenience as the top reason why viewers watch TV online. Other reasons included a lack of commercials and "portability."
Conversely, results of a survey released in July by the Readership Institute showed a small drop in local newspaper readership in the US from the fall of 2006 to the spring of 2008, with a larger decline among younger adults aged 18 to 24.
Although the authors of the survey suggested that seasonal factors came into play, the total number of newspaper "non-readers" uncovered by the survey amounted to 36%.
Still, those who do read newspapers spend an average of 27 minutes per day reading it during the week, and 57 minutes on Sunday.
"The weekday findings are similar to previous results, [but] the weekend time spent, while similar to results from the last four studies, indicates a drop of 7 percentage points from our first study in 2002," according to the authors.
Meanwhile, on the newspaper circulation side, a report published this week by the UK's Media Guardian showed that, from August 2007 to August 2008 in that country, "serious daily papers jointly lost 3.99% of their [circulation sales], the middle market pair lost 5.03% and the populars lost 2.63%."
Yet although these particular surveys cover a lot of ground, they don't touch at all on other news delivery mechanisms, such as news magazines, radio, online newswires, and specialized Web sites.
actually, if you read between the lines for just a minute (or momentarily turn on the thinking organ), this is tremendous news. small newspapers continuously are getting bought out by media conglomerates due to falling readerships. your news is becoming less and less objective everyday. pretty soon, your daily dose of news will be coming from the government sponsored news agency. sound orwellian? go ahead and laugh it up, chuckles.
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Wow! Newsflash!
Large centrally managed conglomerates being replaced by decentralized local online sources....hmmm
Yup, that's news....and its also been one of the reason for the demise of the large print conglomerates.
You want timely (but just as inaccurate) international reporting, use online conglomerates.
But who needs a centrally managed service with headquarters in New York or London to report on local issues of actual pertinence of which the local source is more intimate? DUH!
I think the irony is that they are only measuring those still 'on the grid' and totally missing those who have ceased to use either as a reliable source of information.
Example; why should I watch some talking head who feels they need to stand in front of th map that you are supposed to be viewing so that they can point to each local city on the map just so they can tell you their guess as to what the weather will do, when a barometer or a quick look outside and a glance at the NOAA site tells you more than they do?
And heck, I can speculate about the speculation based on the previous speculation that passes for 'news', rather than simply reporting KNOWN facts, as well as they can - maybe better!
The news is simply infotainment where the importance of the author or talking head takes precedence over an educational or informational function anyway.
Who needs it. There are better sources.
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Stay tuned!
The next big "Newsflash" will be that the shoe and garment industry is on the decline in the US.
You can't put anything past BN!
This story doesn't even earn a "yawn..."
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The same can be said of TV now as well.
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Is this "new" news?
Print "news" has been in trouble for many years/decades.
Umm Hello?
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