Has Digital Distribution Rejuvenated Readership? Revisiting the age - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Has Digital Distribution Rejuvenated Readership?

Revisiting the age demographics of newspaper consumption

Neil Thurman (LMU Munich) @neilthurman

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 Jan 14– Dec 14 July 14– Jun 15 Jan 15– Dec 15 July 15– June 16 Jan 16– Dec 16 July 16– Jun 17 Millions

Cross platform monthly reach (UK national newspapers)

500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Millions

Advertising income, UK newspaper brands

Source: AA/WARC and PAMCo

?

4

Print survey data (e.g. from national readership surveys) Passive online measurement data (e.g. from comScore)

‘Fusion’

Net (de-duplicated) readership reported over common time periods

Frequency 73% of print readers read it

“almost always” (i.e. every day), with 13 percent reading them “quite often” (NRS 2017). Online visitors visit an

• av. of three times a

month (comScore 2016).

Time- spent

Print edition read for 55–86 minutes per issue per reader

(NRS 2017).

Online editions read for 8.3 minutes per user / per month (comScore 2016).

Readership Time spent Number of readers

Y Y

How frequently they read

N Y

How long they read

N Y

Time spent

Total minutes spent reading by the aggregated British print, PC, and mobile readerships (18+) of each of 8 UK national newspaper brands, 2016

20 40 60 80 Star Standard The Guardian The Times Mirror The Telegraph The Sun The Mail

Billions minutes / year

Print PC and mobile

(Excludes time spent watching video on mobile)

86% - print 14% - online

50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500

Apr-15 May-15 Jun-15 Jul-15 Aug-15 Sep-15 Oct-15 Nov-15 Dec-15 Jan-16 Feb-16 Mar-16 Apr-16 May-16 Jun-16 Jul-16 Aug-16 Sep-16 Oct-16 Nov-16 Dec-16 Jan-17 Feb-17 Mar-17 Apr-17

Time spent reading (milllions/mins)

Print PC and mobile

26 March 2016. The Independent stops printing and goes online-only.

Online time-spent changed <1% Total attention (measured by time spent reading) received by The Independent from its British audience before it went online-only

Source: Thurman, N. & Fletcher, R. (2018) Are Newspapers Heading Towards Post-Print Obscurity? A Case Study of The Independent’s Transition to Online-only. Digital Journalism

• Change in time spent with

newspaper brands since they started to be distributed in print and

• nline?
• Differences in behaviour
• f older, middle-aged, &

younger readers an explanation?

National Readership Survey 33,225 sample in home interviews comScore panels: 72,000 PC users 6,000 mobile users + tagging

1999/ 2000 2016

50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 1999/2000 2015 Billions of minutes

Changes in total annual attention* received by eight UK national newspaper brands** between 1999/2000 and 2016

Note: Reading time for 2016 includes PC, mobile, and print audiences. Only print reading time is included in the 1999/2000 figures. In 1999/2000 the time spent reading online was insignificant for this sample of newspaper brands. * Measured by minutes spent reading. **Mail, Mirror, Star, Telegraph, Guardian, Sun, Evening Standard, and Times. Sources: NRS and comScore.

• 40%

2016

Age has been found to be the (Lauf 2001; McGrath 1993;

Schlagheck 1998; Thurlow and Milo 1993) or one of the (Elvestad and Blekesaune 2008) most important determinants of

newspaper use. Peiser, Wolfram. 2000. “Cohort Replacement and the Downward Trend in Newspaper Readership.” Newspaper Research Journal 21 (2): 11–22.

93 31 137 61 177 155 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450

1999/2000 2015

Billions of minutes

55+ 35-54 18-34

Changes in total annual attention* received by eight UK national newspaper brands** from their younger, middle-aged, and older British audiences between 1999/2000 and 2016

Note: Reading time for 2016 includes PC, mobile, and print audiences. Only print reading time is included in the 1999/2000 figures. In 1999/2000 the time spent reading online was insignificant for this sample of newspaper brands. * Measured by minutes spent reading. **Mail, Mirror, Star, Telegraph, Guardian, Sun, Evening Standard, and Times. Sources: NRS and comScore.

2016

• Digital distribution not altered intra-cohort

change & cohort effects…

• …even when accounting for online editions and

frequency & duration of consumption

• Decline of newspaper brands, some way to go

before it bottoms out

20 40 60 80 100 120

1999/ 2000 2016 1999/ 2000 2016 1999/ 2000 2016 1999/ 2000 2016 1999/ 2000 2016 1999/ 2000 2016 1999/ 2000 2016 1999/ 2000 2016 The Mail Mirror The Sun Star Standard The Telegraph The Guardian The Times

Billions of minutes / year

Sources: NRS and comScore.

+17% +19%

Time spent with UK newspapers by their British audiences in:

1999/2000 2016

Neil Thurman

LMU Munich @neilthurman www.neilthurman.com