MediaPost writes up a comScore study that segments online news consumers and newspaper readers. The simple takeaway is that younger audiences are no less interested in news, they just get it online. Print attracts older audiences:
Print:
Online:
According to the scheme that comScore used:
- Heavy Newspaper Readers: 6 times per week
- Medium Newspaper Readers: 3-5 times per week
- Light Newspaper Readers: 1-2 times per week
- Non Newspaper Readers: 0 times per week
News consumption hasn’t decreased and hasn’t decreased among younger audiences; it has simply moved online for some segment of the audience. comScore found that the strong print brands also had a strong online following, but in many cases that following was comprised of a large chunk of online-only readers.
In addition, the online environment is quite a bit more competitive with various news sources, including TV sites and online only sites, competing for attention with traditional newspapers. This fragmentation and segmentation of traditional media audiences is also happening with yellow pages and to a slightly lesser extent with TV.\
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The new State of the News Media 2008 report is available. This is a great overview of the newspaper industry.
