The latest survey of newspaper readers in the US by the Readership Institute has both good and bad news for the industry.
The good news is the study (PDF) found that newspaper readership is relatively stable, only down a little from 2006:
Why aren’t they much worse, when the imminent demise of newspapers seems to be all we ever hear about? The short answer is that reading customers aren’t deserting newspapers at anything approaching the rate that advertising customers are.
But the results of the survey of online readership (PDF) is less encouraging.
It suggests that newspapers are struggling to find new readers online, with 62% of respondents saying they have never visited their local daily newspaper’s website:
The potential to develop a strong and differentiated local online brand and to establish usage among groups who don’t read the newspaper much or who prefer to get their news and information online is largely unexploited.
What is more worrying for newspapers is that their readers are lukewarm about their online offerings. The study found that people rated print higher than the web in terms of experience:
Since experiences correlate with behavior, it is not surprising that the higher engagement level with the print product translates into higher readership, whereas lower engagement with the websites is reflected in lower usage.
The challenge facing newspapers is that while readers are happy with the established print product, there is still a long way to go online.
The web offers tremendous potential to expand the reach of a news organisation, yet this survey shows newspapers are not taking advantage of this potential. This is not only failing to attract new readers, but it is also failing to satisfy existing readers.
As digital takes over an increasingly large role in our media consumption, the smart thing would be to invest in online, preparing for the day when print readership starts to sharply decline.
This survey suggests there is an audience and market online for the media, but this requires offering more than print shovelware on the web.
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[...] from Readership Institute: Get Smart About Your Readers (via reportr.net): The 2008 results surprised me, as they did last time in 2006. Why aren’t they much worse, [...]
Some magazines are working extremely hard to build online communities and to ensure that readers are kept interested by online content and engaged in debates and forums.
On subjects which affect hundreds of jobs, the online arena has proved a valuable resource for breaking news and altered the stance of its weekly magazine. This is vital for survival in modern, digital climes.
This is illustrated by the popularity of commenting on breaking news stories and the intensity of the debates… http://community.printweek.com/forums/
How did they conduct this survey? I read through it, although it’s long, and didn’t see anything right away. Did they call people on the phone? Because I don’t have a home phone. I don’t know anyone under the age of 35 who does. We’re a generation that reads news online all the time, and we all carry cellphones. They might have a sampling of young people who do have a home phone, but I don’t think it could be a very accurate one.