Net is Newspapers’ Best Opportunity Yet: Digital Survey
Though this would seem to be the worst time in the newspaper industry’s history, the Internet presents it with its best opportunity to date, according to the University of Southern California’s Center for the Digital Future.
In a recent survey, the results of which were released yesterday, USC’s Center for the Digital Future found that the average Internet user reads online newspapers for 53 minutes a week, the highest level so far in the center’s studies.
Internet users in 2007 said they spent an average of 41 minutes per week reading newspapers online, the center reported.
The Center for the Digital Future also reported that 22% of Internet users said they stopped their subscriptions to a newspaper or magazine because they could get the content online.
“We’re clearly now seeing a path to the end of the printed daily newspapers — a trend that is escalating much faster than we had anticipated,” center director Jeffrey Cole said in a statement. “The decline of newspapers is happening at a pace they never could have anticipated. Their cushion is gone, and only those papers that can move decisively to the Web will survive.”
He added that research indicates that today’s teenagers aren’t reading newspapers and never will.
However, Cole added, the Internet finally allows newspapers to compete with radio and television in breaking news.
“For the first time in 60 years, newspapers are back in the breaking-news business, except now their delivery method is electronic and not paper.,” Cole said “Since the beginning of radio, newspapers have not been able to compete with broadcasting for delivery of immediate news. But in a digital world, newspapers can compete at least as effectively for breaking news delivery with broadcast media. On the Web, newspapers are live, and they can supplement their coverage with audio, video, and the invaluable resources of their vast archives. And, they already have talented teams of reporters and editors who can deliver the news.”
Newspapers also have established brands and loyal readers, indicating they may not be dead yet, he added.
Also, when survey respondents were asked if they would miss the print edition of their newspapers if they disappeared, 61% said “yes,” according to the Center for the Digital Future.
In other findings, the Digital Future Project reported that 24% of American homes have at least three computers and the average Internet user spends more than 17 hours a week online.
And while Internet users may still be loyal to their newspapers, they expressed no great love for advertising.
Fifty two percent of those surveyed said they never click on Internet ads and just 6% said they do so often, according to the Digital Future Project.
Also, 61% of those surveyed said they never buy products they learned about through an online ad, according to the project.
However, just over half said they prefer to have free ad-supported content rather than having to pay for it.
