Reading Patterns in Print and Online Newspapers

Abstract

This article analyses whether reading patterns differ between readers of a printed newspaper and readers of an online newspaper. Such a question is hardly new but has increased in importance as more readers switch from printed to digital news media. The analysis compares data collected from a readership study focused on the printed local Swedish newspaper VLT (Vestmanland Läns Tidning) and data collected by automatic registration of the number of unique page views on the news site vlt.se. Both data collections were made during the same two-week period in September 2013. The results show some obvious differences as online readers focus on the first page of the online edition, while print readers focus on the editorial sections inside the newspaper. Print readers also display a more diverse reading repertoire, while online readers concentrate on a limited number of subjects. However, when the time factor is taken into consideration—the amount of time spent on each article—the reading patterns of print readers and online readers become closer to each other. The article discusses the importance of focusing not only on “clicks” but also on the time factor when selecting what kind of news to publish online.

KEYWORDS:

• audience analysis
• content analysis
• news consumption
• online news
• printed news
• reading patterns

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work is part of the Daily Newspaper Research Programme at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.