Newspapers' Website Readership Flat Despite Decline In Print Audience

More bad news for the newspaper business: media researchers are finding that online readership figures are surprisingly sluggish, according to a report by MediaLife magazine.

A survey of 51 major metropolitan newspapers' websites shows little or no gains, a fact which is surprising some media watchers.
Photo Credit: *asiasociety.org*

Carol Reif

04/12/2016 7:30 p.m.

It seems readers aren’t switching over from print to digital news at the rate hoped for by the 51 major metropolitan publications surveyed for the study, the MediaLife report said.

According to the MediaLife report, the average reach of a newspaper website went from 9.8 percent in 2007 to just 10 percent in 2015, even as print readership fell from 42.4 percent in 2007 to 28.8 percent in 2015.

Even among younger folks, who often seem permanently glued to their mobile devices, “print reach” is significantly higher than “online reach,” found one of the researchers, University of Texas journalism professor, Hsiang Iris Chyi, the MediaLife story said.

To read the MediaLife article, click here.

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