Global study reveals changing news consumption trends

UK digital readership habits have more in common with Denmark and Finland than the US and France, according to a new international survey by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

The report, co-sponsored by Newsworks, found that in the UK, Denmark and Finland – countries renowned for their strong newsbrands – people tend to begin news journeys with a trusted and traditional newsbrand, whereas people in the US are more likely to use search as the main gateway to content.

Similarly, while the US has witnessed rising access to “born digital players”, such as BuzzFeed and The Huffington Post, in the UK traditional newsbrands were still accessed digitally by more than half of the online sample.

According to the research, just 9% of UK respondents used The Huffington Post to access news last week, compared to 17% of US respondents.

“We tend to forget that the UK doesn’t always follow the US when it comes to media trends,” said Judy Harman, planning director at Newsworks.

“While patterns of device ownership are similar, consumption patterns are not the same. In the UK newspaper brands have been at the forefront of the digital revolution and remain strong destination brands across all platforms.

“Instead of replacing old platforms with the new, we are much more like Finland and Denmark in that we layer the two to create a multi-platform effect.”

Analysis of the UK data by Newsworks shows that more than half of 21-24 year olds and 41% of 18-20 year olds say that digital newspaper brands are their favoured source of commercial news.

While 18-24 year olds are most likely to read newspaper brands digitally, 43% said that they like to read a paper weekly. Perhaps surprisingly, they are also more likely to read a national newspaper brand than watch traditional TV news.

In terms of social media, multi-platform newspaper brand readers were found to be an active and engaged demographic, making up 56% of all people sharing news on social networks and 55% of all people commenting on stories.

On Twitter, 64% of users follow a professional news account, while 48% follow a journalist, 40% a breaking news account and 28% a general newsbrand.

While 63% of UK respondents said that the brand is important when it comes to creating trust, journalists were also found to play a significant part, with 44% saying that they are more likely to trust a source of news because of a journalist.

In the UK, the top journalists on Twitter include Caitlin Moran, Jon Snow, Victoria Coren and Robert Preston.

Nic Newman, author of the report and research associate at Reuters, said: “News is becoming more mobile, more social and more digital, but newsbrands and their journalists remain a trusted source of information and a key driver of conversation.”