When it comes to reading and watching news on the Internet, the faster the connection, the higher the consumption.
That’s one of the conclusions from a new study released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
At the end of 2005, according to the Pew study, 50 million Americans
got their news online on a typical day, with much of that growth driven
by high-speed or broadband connections.
The study raises -- but does not fully resolve -- at least two
fundamental questions facing the people charged with presenting news
online:
- What is it about the nature of the user's connection that influences his or her news consumption patterns?
- What strategies might online news leaders develop to take best advantage of the trends uncovered by the survey?
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The study leaves little doubt about the preferred
news platform for the “always online” broadband adults under the
age of 36: it's the Internet. Publishers and broadcasters had
hoped these young people would follow in the generational footsteps of
their parents and eventually adopt local newspapers and television
as their primary sources of news. Instead, usage of the Internet by
this group is on par with its usage of local TV and surpasses
newspapers as a daily source for news.
Almost half, 46 percent, of this group turns to news online on a
typical day, compared with 51 percent who turn to local television and
28 percent who turn to a local newspaper.
For those who have toiled in the online vineyard for years, this is reaffirmation of the importance of Internet news.
“It’s about time – in both interpretations of that phrase. First,
time-starved consumers are looking for always on/anywhere outlets (from
the Internet to TiVo) that do not enslave them to someone else’s
schedule. The idea of waiting until 6 p.m. to find out what happened
today is foreign to an Internet user; it’s actually a laughable idea.
In the second sense of the phrase, excuse my sarcasm, but it is about
damned time," said Rusty Coats, general manager of tbo.com, the online partner of the Media General’s Tampa Tribune
and WFLA in an e-mail interview. “Those of us who work in online news
have been predicting this moment – even during the humbling dot-bomb
years – for more than 10 years.”
Broadband is shaping news consumption in other ways.
For the group that Pew calls “high-powered” Internet users, the
early adopters who are the most active online, the Web is their primary
news source, with 71 percent going online for news on an average
day.
This “high-powered” group makes up about half of the high-speed
Internet users in the U.S. About 37 percent of all Americans have
a broadband connection at home, compared with 23 percent with slower
dial-up connection. (An additional 10 percent or so of Americans
access the Web at work.) The trend is for continued broadband
adoption.
However, it isn’t just this “super users’ group that is turning to
the Web for news. In January 2005, 30 percent of all online users
“got news yesterday.” In March 2000, that number was 22 percent,
When Pew expanded its definition of news sources -- different
types of sites -- it found that number of users getting news online
“yesterday” was even higher: 35 percent.
The question about broadband and its impact upon news consumers can
be viewed from a variety of perspectives. John B. Horrigan, Pew’s
associate director of research, put it this way:
‘In trying to disentangle the forces that shape online news
consumption, it might help to list several ways broadband could
influence news consumption patterns.
- A broadband connection might add to the total number of news
sources people turn to on the average day. The “always on” connection
might enable users to more frequently consult more news sources than is
possible with a dial-up connection.
- A broadband connection might substitute for other news sources.
Some users might not bother with the newspaper or TV news given the
easy availability of online news over a home broadband connection.
- Broadband might have a supplementary effect; users may get online
news more often than they did when they have dial-up, but their overall
daily news consumption may not be radically different than before.’
In other words, we know something is going on, but it's hard to
pinpoint a specific cause and effect relationship. That makes it
harder for some traditional media sites to respond to the opportunity
and challenges broadband offers.
Steve Sullivan, the Baltimore Sun’s
Executive News Editor/Multimedia, said in an e-mail interview that "the
challenge we and other newspapers face is how to use our site in such a
way that allows us to compete for eyes online. We have to react
more quickly to delivering news online and we have to think differently
about what we need for an online version of a story. That means
we frequently need more urgency than analysis.”
“A line I borrowed from Pixar (who I believe took it from Native
Americans) is, 'Use every part of the buffalo.' That means look
at everything you might be able to get from a story - text, photos,
audio, video, links, reader interaction, and so on. We'll try to
consider whatever we can use on our Website that makes a richer news
experience for the reader," said Sullivan.
There is piece of good news for those worried that young adults are turning away from news.
According to Pew, for the older [over age 36] broadband users,
“online news plays a supplementary role in how they get news
daily—filling out entrenched online and offline news habits but not
adding many new sources. Both types of older high-speed users get news
from traditional media sources, and although there is a modest shift
away from local TV news and toward online news for broadband users,
there is no difference in total number of news sources used on the
typical day.”
However, the broadband news consumers under age 36 consult more news
sources on the average day than those with dial-up access. This
young, high-speed group is accessing more news sources on an average
day with “most of the additional sources …accessed through the Internet
[although some are national newspapers.]”
Why should so much attention be paid to this group of users?
For many, the under age 36 is a look into the future of media
consumption. These are the “always on, always hunting for more
sources” users.
Nearly half [46 percent] of those surveyed under age 36 have a
broadband connection at home; for those aged 36 to 50 the number is 43
percent. Only 23 percent of users over age 50 have high-speed at home.
What is important to keep in mind is the “influence” this high-speed
and “high-powered” user group has on the rest of the Internet
world. According to the Pew’s report “these users are
trailblazers—and the fact that they have been online longer (than other
broadband users and much longer than dial-up users) suggests
later-comers may mirror their behavior. The growth of broadband
penetration in recent years and future upgrades in network speeds are
other reasons to think these users may hold clues to future behavior.”
Steve Schwaid, vice president of news and programming at NBC Universal television stations, offered this perspective as a broadcaster:
"I can't speak for newspapers," he said in an e-mail
interview. "But for television it further illustrates that we
need to use our resources to cover news -- local content, community
content -- and push it to our users no matter how they are
consuming the information.”
The Pew study also suggests that these early adopters are finding
new and different ways to consume online news. This group is
often using new information technology tools and gadgets before the
rest of the online world. And that has an impact “eventually on
the entire market.”
However, TBO's Coats offers this advice before sites start looking at broadband as the salvation of news sites:
“Rather than getting starry-eyed about fat-pipe applications, I’d
rather see us focus on doing a better job of the basics. The amount of
local breaking news on many newspaper sites is abysmal. Their weather
maps lack depth and dynamism. Their sports are boring. And their
functionality – from search to calendar to recruitment databases – are
barely passable. We should be ashamed of how poor our sites compare to
Yahoo! and Monster in basic areas. It is a personal bias, but I believe
our industry spends WAY too much time focusing on shiny objects that
make us look cool to our peers (pick a podcast, any podcast) and not
nearly enough time fortifying and enhancing our load-bearing walls.”
Good advice for any medium, anytime.
