TechCrunch
A new study by eMarketer reports people are spending as much time on their mobile devices each day as they do reading print newspapers and magazines.
Erick Schonfeld reports the survey results provided estimates of consumer behavior across multiple media, including TV, Internet and radio, as well as print and mobile platforms:
“The average American spends an estimated 50 minutes a day staring at his cell phone, versus 30 minutes reading a print newspaper and 20 minutes reading a magazine. Of course, much of that time staring at mobile screens is reading news online so maybe when all is said and done people are actually reading more.”
As Schonfeld points out, an increase in mobile activity does not necessarily correlate with a decrease in news readership. In fact, a number of surveys have shown news content is one of the most popular categories on smart phones.
So, mobile readership is not the real challenge for publishers. Readers will be there if we can keep up with their expectations. The open question is, much like the Web, what are the business models to support the content they’re reading?
