Duncan’s calculations included examining the readership of The Guardian and comparing it to Web metric results for the corresponding website. This, he explains, was difficult because “no one actually agrees on how many people are reading newspapers on the web.” Ultimately, he found that there are 986,586 print readers and 270,576 online readers in the UK.

Based on these findings, Duncan is hesitant to believe the predictions of the newspaper’s fall at the hands of the Internet.  He notes that in the UK, where broadband penetration is high, it is unlikely that the number of online readers will approach that of print readers anytime soon.

The Newspaper National Network LP study, conducted by Scarborough Research, found that 81% of American newspaper readers could be categorized as “crossover” users, who consume both the print and online editions.  In fact, 83% of those crossover users demonstrated a strong attachment to both platforms.  These individuals tended to use the newspaper websites specifically to access breaking news, follow-up on previously viewed articles, and search information on local activities.

Like Duncan’s calculations, the NNN study results do not support the popular belief that the Internet is having a detrimental effect on newspaper consumption.  Rather, 87% of the crossover users reported that their time spent with newspaper media had remained the same or increased.

Based on these two analyses, it appears that newspapers should not lose hope in the print platform anytime soon.  Duncan strongly counsels publishers from stripping resources from the print editions for their websites.  And with four out of five American readers falling in the crossover user category, it appears that newspapers should continue to maintain quality in their print reporting, while working to improve their Web sites.

Source: Press Gazette through IFRA Executive News Service and Media Post