Research carried out by the Oxford University based ‘Reuters Institute for the study of Journalism’ polled just under 20,000 people across 10 countries to ascertain consumer’s news reading habits.
Those countries consisted of Brazil, Japan, Italy, Spain, Finland, Denmark, France, Germany, UK and the US.
The survey yielded some very interesting results.
Brand Loyalty
To start with, over half of all those that were polled claimed to follow news through a single established brand with only 16% claiming to use digital-only sites such as the Huffington Post or Buzzfeed. Only in the US and Japan was this trend buckled.
As the image details above, just 7% of consumers actually paid for news content in the last year resulting in the UK ranking the lowest of countries with this question. Asked if they would pay for news in the future, again the UK came bottom with the same 7% score.
Reasons for this apparent lack of interest in paying for traditional print news points towards the rise and rise of the smartphone with top subscription sites being the Times, Sun and the Telegraph. These sites have monopolised on the fact that many people, 55% in fact, just want to access news from one trusted source on mobile.
Content, Content, Content
In terms of content people read the image above provides some very interesting data.
– The UK sits bottom of the table when it comes to ‘interest in politics’ with the US at 55% and Germany at 60%.
– Over 1 in 2 households in Japan still get papers delivered.
– Germany comes out bottom in its interest in arts (9%) news whereas Brazil shoots to the top with 27%.
– Woman are seemingly more interested in political news stories than men. (44%-23%).
Journalists which had/have a good reputation also tend to attract people to a news source.
Going Social
Interestingly however the role of Twitter, with regards to news content, was polled and results show that at least half of all Twitter users in the UK follow at least one journalist with the BBC, Guardian and Economist raking top for news dominance on the platform.
Social Media played a large part too again producing some surprising results.
– Video news emerges unpopular due to poor loading times.
– The written word proves more effective, especially for the elderly.
Unsurprisingly however Facebook continues to dominate the content drive both in terms of news and general content socially. Yet more intriguing is the data showing WhatsApp emerging as a serious social network with over 26% of Spaniards using the service for news.
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