Why are we going online?

Americans are going online to pass the time more than they were just a few years ago, according to a new study.

A report from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that about 53% of young adults ages 18 to 29 go online on any given day for no particular reason except for a diversion or just for fun. About 81% of people in this demographic said they have done so at least occasionally.

Online news surpasses newspapers and radio

You could see this coming but it is still amazing to know it has finally happened. I've noticed my own transition from a lover of newspapers to someone who has completely transitioned to completely consuming news online. Last week, the Pew Research Center published further evidence for the sorry state of the newspaper industry.

In the 2012 edition of Pew’s biennial survey on news consumption, only 29 percent of the respondents claimed having read a newspaper the day before, down from 58 percent in 1994 and 39 percent in 2002. Meanwhile, more and more Americans are turning to online sources to get their news updates. In 2012, 39 percent of the respondents had consumed online news the day before the survey, surpassing not only newspapers but also radio news. Television remains the number one news source for Americans. 55 percent of the respondents in the 2012 survey had watched a news program on TV on the day prior to the survey.

This chart shows how news consumption in the United States has changed over the past two decades. Will TV news be next?

 



http://www.statista.com/markets/14/media-advertising/chart/635/news-consumption-of-americans/

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Do you read your mobile news in a browser or app?

Imagine you have invested heavy in a technology betting it is the next new shiny toy. Imagine it isn't. Interesting that the web browser is still the app of choice for consumers who read news on mobile devices. Early on I noticed that I preferred to read the WSJ on my iPad browser as opposed to their app.

Interesting study from Pew Research Center.

News organizations have invested significantly in native apps for iOS, Android, WP7 and even, for a time, webOS — yet nearly three times as many tablet owners and twice as many smartphone users access news primarily through browsers rather than apps, according to a Pew Research Center study released Monday.

Sixty percent of tablet news readers and 61% of smartphone news readers in the survey said they get most of their news through web browsers on those devices. Twenty-three percent of tablet news readers and 28% of smartphone news readers claimed they use apps, while 16% and 11%, respectively, said they use apps and web browsers equally.

via Twice As Many Mobile News Readers Prefer Browsers to Apps [Study].

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• Tom's Guide: 10 Mobile Browsers for Surfing On the Go (tomshardware.com)


• It's official: News consumption is all about social and mobile (gigaom.com)


• Google Chrome goes mobile (lenovo.com)


• The 5 Best Alternative Browsers for iOS (vikitech.com)