Tablet media may turn out to be a big help for newspapers and magazines. A recent comScore study shows that “in the case of online newspapers, tablets are now driving 7% of total page views, an impressive figure considering the relative infancy of the tablet space” says Mark Donovan, comScore SVP of Mobile. Donovan adds that “Publishers that understand how these devices are shifting consumption dynamics will be best positioned to leverage this platform to not only drive incremental engagement among current subscribers but also attract new readers.”
The study found that nearly 2 in 5 U.S. tablet owners read newspapers and/or magazines on their device in August, with 1 in 10 reading publications almost daily. Analysis of readership activities across platforms revealed that Kindle Fire users displayed the strongest propensity for reading newspapers and magazines on their device.
In the three-month average period ending August 2012, 37.1% of tablet owners read a newspaper on their device at least once during the month, with 11.5% of tablet owners reading newspapers almost every day. Kindle Fire users demonstrated the greatest tendency to read newspapers, with 39.2% doing so in August, slightly edging out iPad at 38.3%. Nook Tablet owners boasted the greatest % of high-frequency newspaper readers with 13.4% doing so on a near daily basis.
Magazines/periodicals showed even higher readership rates than newspapers with 39.6% of tablet owners reading
magazines on their device during the month. Kindle Fire owners once again showed the highest readership rate at 43.9%, followed by iPad users at 40.3 %.
ON-DEVICE READERSHIP DRIVEN BY CONSUMERS AGE 25-44
Analysis into readership demographics revealed that newspaper and magazine tablet audiences closely resembled one another in gender, age and household income distribution. Across both newspapers and magazines, readers were significantly more likely to be male. Newspaper audiences were 17% more likely to be male compared to an average tablet owner (index of 117), while magazine audiences were 11% more likely to be male (index of 111).
People between the ages of 25-34 represented the highest share of readers, accounting for 27.4% of newspaper
consumers and 28.2% of magazine/periodical consumers, while people age 35-44 accounted for 1 in 5 readers in both categories. More than half of readers had a household income of $75k or greater, while those in the highest income segment of $100k or greater skewed most heavily toward readership. .
