Lori Rosen, founder and president of The Rosen Group, points out that these findings suggest that, though there is a strong shift to online news consumption and a preference for online sources for breaking news, Americans still find print publications to be important sources, especially for entertainment.
Rosen concludes that "... people are not abandoning their print editions... there is still a certain satisfaction and ease to holding printed text in your hands, and PDAs or PCs will not replace this just yet."
Other survey findings:
Though the majority of Americans go online to learn about daily breaking news, print magazines remain one of the top sources for entertainment, advice and lifestyle information.
Source(s) of News | |
News Source | % of Respondents (Multiple Response OK) |
News website | 65.3% |
Newspaper (online) | 56.7 |
Newspaper (print) | 55.4 |
National TV news | 55.1 |
Local television affiliate | 41.8 |
News aggregator | 35.9 |
Blogs | 22.6 |
Social networking site | 10.5 |
Source: The Rosen Group, February 2009 |
The survey found that despite a growing preference for online news sites, print magazines are a leading entertainment source. Nearly 80% of respondents say they subscribe to magazines vs. 53% for newspapers.
Primary Media Source of Entertainment, Advice, Lifestyle Information (% of Respondents) | |
Primary Source | % of Respondents |
Print magazines | 27.0% |
Website | 25.2 |
Blogs | 10.9 |
Print newspaper | 10.2 |
National TV network | 7.5 |
Online magazines | 6.8 |
Social networking site | 5.9 |
Online newspaper | 5.0 |
Local TV affiliate | 1.6 |
Source: The Rosen Group, February 2009 |
For additional information, please contact the Rosen Group here, or Marketing Charts for tables.
This research would be a 100x more relevant if it gave demographic context. I'd be more interested in knowing what 18 to 35's thought.
I agree with David but I'd like to take it further. I'd like to see all the demos (age, income, education, etc.).
I'd also like to know how the survey was conducted and it's methodology.
Was a comparison done btween the "53% that subscribe to a daily newspaper" and actual subscription numbers by just the top ten market's newspapers? Not circulation, but paying subscribers. If 53% of the population subscribed...I don't think they'd be stopping the presses as fast as they are. Interesting that they listed: newspapers, newspaper websites and TV stations. The key omission being local TV station websites which are quickly meeting and beating local newspaper site's traffic due to the rich video content that is added constantly.
There was an interesting tidbit about Americans finding print to still be relevant, especially for entertainment. Print isn't dying but the deck of media usage is getting shuffled and we're all being dealt new hands. The newspaper folks are figuring out that their core business is news, not ink and paper. The delivery mechanism is almost irrelevant for them.