Younger Online News Consumers Are Not Newspaper Readers

YOUNGER ONLINE NEWS CONSUMERS ARE NOT NEWSPAPER READERS
[SOURCE: Center for Media Research, AUTHOR: Jack Loechner]
A new comScore study of the differences in online behavior among heavy, medium, light and non-newspaper readers showed that non-newspaper readers are likely to be younger, but are actually heavier than average online news consumers. Meanwhile, heavy newspaper readers are more likely than average to engage with traditional print news brands online. Several key takeaways emerged from this study, says the report: 1) Based on their heavier than average visitation across most key news sites, those who do not read print versions of newspapers are not necessarily light news consumers. In fact, they show a high propensity to visit the majority of sites studied, including print (e.g. LA Times), TV (e.g. FoxNews.com), and Internet (e.g. Topix.com) brands. 2) Both the heavy print newspaper readers and the non-readers show heavy consumption of print news brands online, which suggests that print news sites are not merely an extension of their offline brands but have a stand-alone brand presence in the online world. The Web sites for three of New York Times, LA Times and Chicago Tribune show above average visitation from both heavy newspaper readers and non-readers. 3) TV news brands are also heavily visited by non-print newspaper readers, underscoring the importance of sight, sound and motion to the digital news experience. Non-readers were 29 percent more likely than the average Internet user to visit FoxNews.com and 15 percent more likely to visit CBS News Digital.
http://blogs.mediapost.com/research_brief/?p=1664