• by Masha Geller , May 12, 2003

The Online Publishers Association today released yet another piece of research, which sheds more light on the "daytime is online primetime" concept. Focusing on the At Work Internet audience (users who accessed the Internet from work within the past 30 days for non-email purposes), the study found that for nearly three in ten work web users, the Internet is the only medium consumed during the daytime.

The study goes a little deeper than that. Specifically, the OPA found that Internet usage by daypart varies by demographics. For example, usage among top-level professionals exceeds all other At Work users during most dayparts by anywhere between five and 13 percentage points, with the greatest percentage (81%) found online in the morning before lunch (Daytime I). In addition, affluent users with annual incomes of $75k and above are more prevalent online throughout the day until evening, when average income levels of online users decline.

The OPA also found that a greater percentage of men are online than women during most weekday dayparts. While the highest percentage of both men (77%) and women (68%) can be found online during the morning before lunch (Daytime I), the greatest gender difference occurs in the Early Morning (6am to 8am), when 52% of men are online vs. only 39% of women. Online activity levels and patterns also vary by demographic group. For example, top-level professionals use the Internet in the morning to keep up with the news and to prepare for meetings, whereas shopping is dominant among this group at night. Affluent workers display similar patterns, with a slightly larger share of them engaging in online shopping activity during the lunch hour.

Moreover, working women avidly check the weather during the day and use the Internet to shop in the evenings, if they use it at all; while working mothers focus on both weather and local information during the day; they are less likely to be online in the evenings than women overall; Also, younger workers show greater interest in world or local news than in business news during the day, and are somewhat less likely to be shopping than the norm; while older workers are more apt to check stocks after the market closes than during trading hours and to seek out entertainment in the Early Morning, rather than the evenings.