comScore: Older generations read the print newspaper more, while online news has the chance to attract those who don't often read the print

Posted by Erina Lin on March 13, 2009 at 10:26 AM

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According to a comScore Plan Matrix demographic profile conducted in the summer of 2007, U.S. newspaper readers skewed as being older generations, while younger people are more likely to be either light users, or even non-readers, SFN's World Digital Media Trends 2008 reported.

The index of heavy readers in the age group 65+ is almost three times higher than the overall index, and it's higher than the average in the age group 55-64 and 45-54, too.

In the younger generations, the index of heavy or medium readers is much lower, while that of light readers and non-readers is much higher than their counterparts in older groups.

This indicates that younger Americans are less committed to printed newspapers.

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However, comScore found the light newspaper readers or non-readers do not necessarily consume online news sites less. For those print news brands, heavy print readers do consume online newspapers more than average, but the light readers and even non-readers also read some brands on a higher-than-average basis.

For example, light print readers visit WSJ.com or Washingtonpost.com more than average, while non-readers frequently go to the online version of LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

For TV news brands, the trend is even more obvious. Non-readers visit television news sites more than average, especially Foxnews.com, while heavy or medium readers don't access TV news sites very often. For Internet news brands, non-readers visit Topix.com, Google news search and Digg.com more than the average, while light readers visit Digg.com, Topix.com and AOL News more.

This study pointed out that even though printed newspaper readers are aging, online news still has the opportunity to attract those who don't read printed versions that much, or don't read them at all, according to the report, World Digital Media Trends 2008, released by SFN and the World Association of Newspapers.