
Newspapers’ online readership has seen little to no gains - eplanit
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/think-papers-websites-are-gaining-think-again/
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tempestn
I have to say, that's a poor use of a line graph. The line implies a
progression. Without reading the axes, it appears to be a graph of readership
over time. I only noticed it wasn't because it made no sense that the print
line was increasing.

A simple bar graph with different colours of bars for print and online would
be much more intuitive.

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elcapitan
I was kind of surprised that they wouldn't show the actual change over time
(say the last 10 years). Those snapshot values don't really tell a story.

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douche
I used to read the New York Times. And by read, I mean I read the front-page,
and then did the crossword puzzle. Then I stopped reading the front-page, and
just did the crossword. A dollar a day for a decent crossword isn't the worst,
but I stopped having time to do it, so I cancelled.

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soyiuz
These findings don't account for huge centralizing effects of online
readership. We would expect for several winners to take all, since there are
no barriers for readers to navigate towards the highest quality content. I am
also puzzled by the absence of The New York Times, which I think would be one
of those winners eating into local audiences elsewhere.

The concept of a "newspaper" itself makes little sense online, where
traditional newspapers compete with aggregators like Reddit and Facebook, and
mixed content providers like Breibart, Huffington Post, FiveThirtyEight, Vice,
BBC, NPR, Al Jazeera and so on. Should we count those as newspapers? The word
"paper" suggests that our categories are inadequate to the task. Other studies
show that people are reading more news than ever online. This study should
simply conclude that readers no longer call their news sources "newspapers."

Imagine a paper that would discuss the stagnation in online shopping by
looking at traditional retailers, without mentioning Amazon or Alibaba.

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tempestn
Very surprising data. I would have expected that in the two under-35 age
groups, online readership would be higher than print. Especially in the
youngest age group, although I wouldn't expect either to be particularly high
there.

Interesting that they're specifically speaking about "in-market" online
readership. Does this mean that there's significant out-of-market readership
that isn't being counted? I know personally I generally read top national and
international papers online far more often than the local paper.

Of course, part of the answer is people getting news in different ways. Like
HN! But also various social media, blogs, etc. But that doesn't account for
the relative popularity of print news over online newspapers among young
people. Again, surprising.

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elcapitan
The up to 25 readership is probably because they still live with their parents
to some degree, so they would tick a 'have access to paper news' box in a
survey.

Also, tabloids might be pretty prevalent in the less educated group, which is
pretty big.

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x5n1
Spend time reading press releases, or read books with actual information. I
pick books. I have my computer read them to me.

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elcapitan
I stopped reading "the news" (as presented as a product) earlier this year and
haven't looked back. I don't miss major events, because they're everywhere
anyway, and I can look up the facts the way I want, not according to the
rhythm of the narration of sensationalist media outlets. I have much more time
to read in-depth books and articles that I select for myself. I feel better
informed since I have stopped reading newspapers and online news.

This is actually basically what I read in Nassim Talebs books years before but
thought it was a bit over the top at the time.

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iamtew
Likewise, I stopped reading the global news years ago. I only read the local
news, as it's nice to know what's happening directly around me.

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elcapitan
That's interesting, what kind of 'local' is that? Living in a big city and
reading city-related news, or more suburban or rural context? (because I live
in Berlin and local/Berlin news would be just as messy garbagy as global news)

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iamtew
I live in Amsterdam, so I mostly read AT5, www.at5.nl

