Pew: Offline news consumers more dedicated than online readers

The latest Pew Internet & American Life Project report about the Net and daily life says 63 percent of Internet users who say they get news in their lives get news online. That seems low -- do 37 percent of people who are online and get news really never read the news online?

Nevertheless, when you break down Pew's findings even further, the numbers get pretty interesting. The dedication to getting news offline is much higher than online.

Of Internet users who ever read the news, 45 percent read it both online and offline; 17 percent get it online exclusively; and 38 percent get offline exclusively. This is a similar pattern to other online activity, and so the report concludes that "when Internet users do a certain activity exclusively in one realm, more will still do it exclusively offline than exclusively online."

The report also observes that convenience and mobility are still a major factor in how people get their news: "Given that most Internet users are more mobile than their Internet connections are, a lot of daily activities still depend on where people are. For example, reading a story in the newspaper might be more convenient on the bus to work, while reading that same story online at a desktop computer might fill the need for a break during a busy workday.

August 18, 2004 | BY JONATHAN DUBE