Despite preferring print newspapers to electronic versions, Italians are slowly starting to change their mentality towards digital news. In 2010, the number of Italians who read online dailies has increased to 39 percent, according to a Mediawatch Journalistic Observatory survey, La Stampa reported today.

"Italians' confidence in the Internet has significantly increased over the past three years... This is an area that can become strategic," Mediawatch's President Carlo Vittorio Giovannelli said to La Voce d'Italia, remembering than in 2007 only 25 percent of Web users read online news.

Photo source: La Stampa

Trust in the information provided by online dailies has also increased from 18 percent to 45 percent in the last three years, the survey revealed.

Overall, Italians are spending more time online and 59 percent said they are using social networks, way up from the 12 percent who used them back in 2007, Ansa revealed. Nonetheless, there is still opposition to buy online and only 21 percent trust digital payments.