• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, December 1, 2009

Confirming what many may have suspected, a new study from Mediamark Research & Intelligence found that people who own electronic book readers are better educated and more affluent than the average American adult. In keeping with their tech-savvy reputation, MRI also found they are more likely to be heavy Internet users.

Overall, 2.1 million American adults own an electronic book reader, according to MRI's estimate, with a gender distribution that somewhat favors men (56.3%) over women (43.7%).

Adults ages 35-54 are the most likely age cohort to own an e-reader, with a 20% greater probability than the general population. MRI also found that e-reader owners are 11% more likely to own their own home, 87% more likely to have an annual household income over $100,000, and 111% more likely to have a bachelor's or post-graduate degree.

They are 116% more likely to be heavy Internet users, and 199% more likely to have accessed the Internet outside the home. Also, they are 154% more likely to have done so via a cell phone or mobile device.

These findings, drawn from MRI's Survey of the American Consumer, come amid growing interest in a wave of new e-readers marketed by a remarkably broad array of electronics companies, publishers and retailers. Every level in the media supply chain seems to tap into the e-reader craze.

There are new products from Sony, Plastic Logic and Barnes & Noble and continuing popularity for Amazon's Kindle product line. In addition, rumored entries for Apple persist, as well as various newspaper and magazine publishers -- most notably Hearst, which revealed plans to produce its own electronic device in February.

Although only 2.1 million American adults currently own e-readers (about 1% of the adult population) a recent forecast by Forrester has that number climbing to 10 million, or about 5%, by the end of 2010.

Even if they are not developing devices themselves, newspaper and magazine publishers are hurrying to create digital editions of their print products for distribution to e-readers.

In the last few weeks, Conde Nast said it is developing e-reader software based on Adobe AIR for its big titles, beginning with Wired, while McClatchy unveiled plans to introduce Kindle-compatible editions of five newspapers: The Sacramento Bee, Charlotte Observer, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Anchorage Daily News and Raleigh's News & Observer.

It remains to be seen whether digital editions can become a significant source of revenue for newspaper publishers -- especially if they eschew advertising, which traditionally accounts for about 80% of total newspaper revenues.