Consumer trends for accessing newspaper info - July 2013

http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2013/07/study-finds-elders-pick-web-over.html

... a new study from Oxford University found that online sites beat newspapers as the preferred news source for every age group – including those over 55 years of age.

But an ambitious survey of 10,843 individuals in nine countries has found that a majority of consumers in every age group now cite online media over printed newspapers as their main source for news.

The study, which is freely available here, was conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University.

Because the survey was conducted only online, “the results will under-represent the consumption habits of people who are not online,” said David A.L. Levy, the director of the institute in an introduction to the findings. He described offline individuals as “older, less affluent and with limited formal education.”

As such, the survey undoubtedly undercounts individuals who still rely on newspapers and television as their primary sources for news.

In the United States, the digital tilt is even more pronounced. As illustrated in Figure 2, supplemental survey data generously provided by Nic Newman, a co-author of the study, shows a stronger preference in most age categories for online news consumption in the U.S. than identified around the globe.

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Main source, online vs. newspaper
U.S.-only results

age group	online	newspaper
18-24	64%	7%
25-34	61%	4%
34-44	41%	5%
45-54	35%	7%
55-plus	25%	13%

#media
#web