• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, September 10, 2024

Despite the dramatic events that took place in July, including Joe Biden withdrawing and the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, consumers showed no major increase in their news consumption, judging by the SmartNews Quarterly Brand Tracker Wave 21 Report. 

Of those polled, 63% accessed news several times a day every day, down from 65% in April. And 33% turn to it several tunes a day in general, versus 38% in April.  

On the upside, 29% checked out the news every day, up from 26% in April.   

Overall, consumers share these feelings about the news:

• I pride myself on being on top of what is going on in the news—41%
• I like to share news with others (virtually or in person)—39% 
• News is a way to distract myself from what is going on in my everyday life—16%
• I fear people will look down on me if I don’t know what is going on in the news—15% 

Their preferred news sources are: 

• Social media — 65% 
• Television — 56% 
• News websites — 50% 
• Mobile news apps — 39%
• Radio — 21% 
• Podcasts — 16%

But it depends on age. 

Social media is preferred by 83% of those in the 18-34 age cohort, and by 63% of those ages 35-54 and 45% in the 56-74 group. 

Yet 65% in the older category use television, compared to 53% aged 35-54 and 52% of the younger group. 

Moreover, 61% of older readers utilize news and websites, compared to 51% aged 35-54 and 41% in the 18-34 demographic. 

Meanwhile, a study from Connatix shows that these were the hot topics in news in the last two weeks of July, based on publisher impressions:

• Donald Trump — 48.41%
• Joe Biden — 22.26%
• Kamala Harris — 6.03%
• J. D. Vance — 3.85%
• Donald Trump Jr. — 2.99%
• Elon Musk — 1.93%
• Shannen Doherty — 1.90%
• Gavin Newsom — 1.59%
• Ben Affleck — 1.45%
• Jennifer Lopez — 1.27%
• Kanye West — 1.24%

 What, no Taylor Swift?