For a long time, people assumed the web was the future of newspapers.
They figured readers would transition to papers’ websites when they began abandoning their print editions. They thought audiences for papers’ digital side would soar.
But just as newspaper advertisers don’t appear to be replacing their print ads with digital ones, print newspaper readers aren’t transitioning to newspapers’ websites in this digital age.
A new research paper finds that over the past eight years the websites of 51 major metropolitan newspapers have not on average seen appreciable readership gains, even as print readership falls.
The average reach of a newspaper website within the paper’s market has gone from 9.8 percent in 2007 to 10 percent in 2015.
And especially this:
…among those ages 18-24, the youngest group of Millennials, print readership is more than double online, at 19.9 percent versus 7.8 percent. Every age group has a higher print than online readership.
H/t: RH
