Media expansion might not be infinite, as the overall time Americans spend on media is declining for the third year in a row, according to the 22nd edition of Veronis Suhler Stevenson's Communications Industry Forecast, MediaPost reported Tuesday.

Declines a very small, at just 0.1 percent in 2006, 2007 and 2008, but they do point towards the conclusion that digital media helps people “compress the amount of time they spend accessing and consuming media.”

The private equity firm's report noted that the declines are impacting traditional media most, especially newspapers, magazines and books, as well as television viewership, which is expected to decline this year, according to Media Post.

Digital media's efficiency allows consumers to do more in less time – although they are consuming the same amount of media, maybe even more, the total amount of time it takes to consume that media is less, VSS Executive Vice President James Rutherfurd stated.

The amount of time most Americans spend on media will decline 0.1 percent, to 3,493 hours total, on average, the report states. However, much of this time will be spent on newer digital media, instead of traditional media platforms growing “obsolescent,” such as VHS and dial-up Internet access, MediaPost reported.

“A consumer looking for news can, in 10 minutes online, capture what probably took 40 minutes to do with a traditional newspaper,” Rutherfurd states in the VSS report, MediaPost reported. “I think what you will see is that the time spent with new media obviously is increasingly, but the total time spent with media is not.”

Overall time spent with digital media is expected to increase, however, as the report concludes:

“For example, time spent with pure-play Internet will surpass recorded music as the third most used medium after television and radio. Meanwhile, time spent by institutions on select media, such as professional information, business-to-business magazines, and outsourced corporate training, will continue to rise, climbing 4.2 percent in 2008 to 301 hours per employee, as technological advances allow businesses to access information 24/7. As a result of the decline in consumer media usage, overall time spent with media will grow only 0.2 percent in 2008 to 3,713 hours per person.”