Study: Online readership more frequent, longer lasting

Posted by Emily Dilling on April 30, 2009 at 6:28 AM

A study done by USC's Annenberg School for Communications shows that readers of online newspapers spend an average of 53 minutes at a site, a record level among the centre's previous studies Chief Marketer reported. The findings of the Center for the Digital Future's study also mark an increase of 12 minutes from a similar survey done last year.

The researchers also found that 22 percent of online readers reported cancelling subscriptions to newspapers due to easily accessed online content.

Director for the center Jeffrey Cole said the findings show that "the decline of newspapers is happening at a pace they never could have anticipated" and added, "only those papers that can move decisively to the Web will survive."

Cole noted in a statement that the most "significant trend about how Americans are changing their news reading habits may be found in comparing the use of online media by light users versus heavy users," Editor & Publisher reported. "Heavy Internet users spent 65 more minutes per week reading online newspapers than do light readers."

More than half of the participants in the survey said they prefer ad-supported sites over content they would have to pay for. Fifty-two percent of those surveyed said they never click on online ads, while only 6 percent claimed they often click on ads, according to Chief Marketer.