consumer action

New research confirms that people are consuming more news information online.

New research from JupiterResearch, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation, reveals that the number of online adults who prefer the internet as their main source of news has grown more than 35 percent in the last four years, at the expense of television and newspapers.

Currently, according to the report, more than 26 percent of online adults prefer the internet for national and international news, compared to 19 percent in 2001.

JupiterResearch consumer surveys show that the percentage of online adults using the internet for daily news had been flat -- hovering around 50 percent -- for the last few years. Preference for online local news is growing, but hasn't exceeded 10 percent among online adults.

Young adults, ages 18 to 24, are helping drive the preference trend, especially in national news. Thirty-three percent of online young adults say they prefer the internet as their primary source of news, while 40 percent prefer TV and 10 percent newspapers.

"In the face of relatively flat usage, this increasing preference for the internet is intriguing," says David Card, VP and senior analyst for JupiterResearch. "While traditional media companies like The New York Times and CNN are doing very well online, our analysis shows that brands like AOL and Yahoo! are increasingly important for online audiences."

JupiterResearch's analysis is based on surveys of more than 10,750 online adults over the course of four years, and appears in the new report, "Online Local Content: Prioritizing Content, Blogs, and Community."

The findings are consistent with other research. "This is certainly consistent with what we've seen at the Pew Internet Project when it comes to getting news about politics," says John B. Horrigan, a director of research with Pew. "Nearly twice as many people during the 2004 election got news online than in 2000. For young people with high-speed connections at home, the internet is much preferred as a news source compared with the newspaper, and nearly as popular as TV."

The Center for the Digital Future also reported in its "Surveying the Digital Future, Year Four" report that among very experienced users, the internet now outranks all other media as a very important or extremely important source of information. And as Pew found, the Center's research also reveals that the internet's importance as an information source is higher among those who access the internet via broadband than those with telephone modems.

It's no surprise, then, that the Online Publishers Association (OPA) Internet Activity Index for March 2005 shows that the Content category registered the largest gain in share of time spent online in March 2005 over February 2005. Driven by a roster of high-profile news and sports events, including the Terri Schiavo case, the Michael Jackson trial and NCAA March Madness, share of time spent online on Content grew 1.1 percent, from 37.0 percent in February 2005 to 37.4 percent in March.

At the same time, Ad Age reports that Newsweek lost 24 percent of their ad pages, and Time slipped 12 points, during the first quarter of the year -- indicating that print is suffering from an increased reliance on online news.

See comScore's analysis of the top-ranking news sites in March below:

Additional resources:

For additional information on Jupiter's report or JupiterResearch's Entertainment & Media research service visit http://www.jupiterresearch.com/

Read more from The Center for the Digital Future's Jeffrey Cole