Online news takes readers away from newspapers
News on the Internet is increasingly taking readers away from printed daily newspapers. This is the result of a study published on Friday in the journal Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft.
News on the Internet is increasingly taking readers away from printed daily newspapers. This is the result of a study published on Friday in the journal Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft. The authors Castulus Kolo and Robin Meyer-Lucht report that they have succeeded for the first time in demonstrating a shift in usage between print and online.
The two researchers examined the use of news websites and printed newspapers in the period between 2001 and 2006. According to Netzwoche.de, this showed that daily newspapers lose many loyal readers precisely where a strong shift towards the Internet as a news medium can be observed. This behavior is particularly pronounced among 25- to 34-year-olds and 35- to 44-year-olds. Among them, the proportion of regular readers of subscription daily newspapers fell from 50.5 to 37.4 and from 64.8 to 54.2 percent respectively between 2001 and 2006. During the same period, the proportion of intensive users of news websites rose from 7.9 to 14.2 and from 7.0 to 12.3 percent respectively.
According to the study, this development underlines the need for publishers to drive forward the digitization of their brands quickly and comprehensively. This is the only way they can retain the online news consumers that they are losing as newspaper readers.
The two researchers examined the use of news websites and printed newspapers in the period between 2001 and 2006. According to Netzwoche.de, this showed that daily newspapers lose many loyal readers precisely where a strong shift towards the Internet as a news medium can be observed. This behavior is particularly pronounced among 25- to 34-year-olds and 35- to 44-year-olds. Among them, the proportion of regular readers of subscription daily newspapers fell from 50.5 to 37.4 and from 64.8 to 54.2 percent respectively between 2001 and 2006. During the same period, the proportion of intensive users of news websites rose from 7.9 to 14.2 and from 7.0 to 12.3 percent respectively.
According to the study, this development underlines the need for publishers to drive forward the digitization of their brands quickly and comprehensively. This is the only way they can retain the online news consumers that they are losing as newspaper readers.
