Newspaper Consumption in the Mobile Age

Abstract

This article combines data from the British National Readership Survey, the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and comScore to calculate how much audience attention newspapers’ print, personal computer (PC), and mobile platforms attract. The results show that, of the time spent with 11 UK national newspaper brands by their British audiences, 88.5 per cent still comes via their print editions, 7.49 per cent via mobiles, and just 4 per cent via PCs. The study reveals that the “share of consumption” of UK national newspaper brands (when measured by time spent) is less evenly distributed than commonly understood, conforming better to a logarithmic pattern than a linear one, and that a single brand—The Mail—has close to a 30 per cent market share. Such data should inform debates on, and the regulation of, media plurality. For publishers, this research calls into question the transition from print to online, showing how “dead-tree” editions are their most important platform. However, the circulation of print editions is in steep decline and newspapers’ fortunes are falling almost as steeply. Unless the qualities that make newsprint so much more engaging than online journalism can be harnessed to propel a reading resurgence, newspapers’ decline will continue, with important social, cultural, and political consequences.

KEYWORDS:

• attention
• audience measurement
• comScore
• engagement
• mobile audience
• newspaper readership
• ratings analysis
• time spent

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

SUPPLEMENTAL DATA

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed 10.1080/1461670X.2017.1279028.

Notes

1. In the United Kingdom, RAJAR (established 1992) is the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences; BARB (established 1981) provides official viewing figures for television; and ROUTE (previously called Postar, established 1996) produces audience estimates for out-of-home media. Their equivalents worldwide are usefully summarised in EMRO (2016).

2. Although there is a single official body—JICWEBS—that oversees the development of internet audience measurement standards in the United Kingdom.

3. For example, one of the first radio news programmes was broadcast by a station, 8MK, owned by the Detroit News, an E. W. Scripps newspaper (Abell 2010).

4. Expressed, for example, as “average issue readership” for print newspapers and magazines and “unique visitors” or “unique browsers” for websites and mobile apps.

5. Dividing monthly unique visitor numbers to a website by the number of days in the month does not give the number of daily online unique visitors because some audience members visit on more than one day per month. For similar reasons, multiplying the average issue readership of a daily print publication by the number of days in the month does not give the number of individual monthly readers because some readers consume the same print publication on more than one day per month.

6. By the end of 2017 or in early 2018 a variation of PADD (to be renamed AMP, Audience Measurement for Publishers) will supersede the NRS under the auspices of a new organisation, the Publishers Audience Measurement Company or PAMCo (AMP 2016).

7. The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, i, The Times, Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Daily Record, Daily Star, and The Sun for the period July 2015 to June 2016.

8. Usage of mobile apps and browsing from mobile devices is not counted by PADD in their calculations of daily reach.

9. At the time of writing (October 2016), comScore is the official supplier of online audience data to the NRS and the official data partner of the UK Online Measurement company—UKOM—which sets the standards for online audience measurement on behalf of UK online publishers and advertisers.

10. PCs include both desktop and laptop machines, although comScore refers to its PC panel as the “desktop” panel.

11. One study showed that smartphone users use just 25 different apps per month, and spend 78 per cent of the time using just three of those apps (comScore 2015, 22).

12. Although those data are available, it was not part of the subscription package utilised for this study.

13. Online consumption in 75 countries is reported on by comScore (comScore 2016) and, although those 75 countries are likely to represent the vast majority of digital audience activity, this leaves approximately 121 countries for which comScore gather no data on internet usage.

14. MailOnline launched in 2003, although prior to that date a site for women existed at www.femail.co.uk.

15. Data from September 2015 for the UK audience aged 18 years and older. Video viewing on mobile devices is excluded from the analysis.

16. The News Media Association, which represents news brands; the Professional Publishers Association, representing the magazine sector; and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (NRS, n.d.-e).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation [grant number A110823/88171].