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Web users turn away from reading offline
Internet users are turning away from traditional sources of media and spending their reading time on the web, increasing the audience for online marketers.
Research by the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future found that the amount of printed material read by internet users has stayed the same since 2001, but the portion of it read online has risen from 19.3 per cent to 23.2 per cent in 2006.
In the battle for consumer attention, this suggests a trend towards Online News, views and reviews, and away from more traditional offline publications.
And this is set to continue, according to the USC Annenberg Center.
Internet users "are using printed materials less often and are instead seeking out that information online, frequently from the online versions of the same sources", the researchers said.
"Everything in our work strongly suggests that this trend will increase significantly".
It was suggested that this shift could be bolstered by moves from the printed media to make more of their products available freely on the web, and could affect TV as well if broadcasters follow a similar path.
This follows Google's achievement in overtaking ITV1 as the UK's largest advertiser - showing how well-established the web has become in Marketing and in consumers' minds.
News and Public Relations news posted on 01 November 2007
