MediaCT Light Bites: More Good News For Digital Print

The latest set of National Readership Survey (NRS) results published on 27 August (Q2 2010) shows that the nation is increasingly embracing technology and the digital world. Comparing data from 3 years ago with current data, in the 12 months ending June 2007, under two-thirds (63%) of the population claimed to have accessed the Internet in the past 12 months, compared to three-quarters (74%) now.160 The survey measures the readership of just the print publications and in July, the NRS announced that it is embarking on a test to fuse publisher website audience data, collected from the Nielsen panel, to the NRS.160 This will potentially allow publishers to analyse the performance of their online platforms alongside, and in combination with, their print counterparts. The NRS also asks about personal usage of technology items and enables the data users to classify technophiles, comprising around one in ten adults.160160160 These results show that, in the period April to June, around 3 in 10 adults (28%) claimed to have watched an HD TV channel at home in the past 12 months compared to 20% in the previous quarter - we know from external data that sales of HD TV sets soared in the lead-up to the World Cup. The introduction of digital readers has been an important development for the publishing industry.160 Electronic readers e.g. Kindle and Sony ebook, Smartphones and tablets such as the Apple iPad, provide alternative platforms for reading newspapers and magazines and may herald a new dawn for print.160 Rupert Murdoch, Chief Executive and Chairman of News Corporation, said in April that Apple's new iPad had the potential to be "the saving of the newspaper industry."160 See also the Ipsos MediaCT thought piece: `An iPad Revolution?' According to these latest NRS figures, around 8m adults (16% of the population) claimed to have used a Smartphone in the last 12 months and 1.2m adults (2%) have used an eReader.160 This latter figure is still relatively low as Kindles are predominantly sold in the US and it may be that the British are exhibiting a typically restrained enthusiasm for the device...for now.160 That said, at the end of 2009, Amazon announced that Kindle sales exceeded physical books.160 The NRS is hoping to publish its first set of iPad usage figures in February.