Screens Now Equal to Paper as Reading Media

The time people spend reading on a digital screen is now almost equal to the time spent reading printed paper text, according to a recent survey by Gartner. You might think that this is a pure substitution effect, but the Gartner survey found that consumers do not generally see print and online content as direct and functional substitutes.

“There are concerns that digital media will cannibalize print media, based on the general decline in newspaper sales and take-up of online news services in many parts of the world, but the evidence from our research is that print and online are not generally regarded as direct substitutes by consumers,” said Nick Ingelbrecht, research director at Gartner. “Something more complicated than a straightforward substitution of print to digital media is taking place."

That suggests "online content" could develop as a new and different media format, not simply a transposed electronic version of offline products. Multimedia likely is one way of describing the difference. It is possible that users instinctively understand that online experiences are inherently interactive, inherently a multimedia format.

The huge majority of tablet and iPad users say they find screen reading either easier than reading printed text (52 percent) or about the same (42 percent). However, 47 percent of laptop users find screen reading harder than reading printed text, and 33 percent reported it was about the same.

Gartner surveyed 1,569 consumers in six countries, the United States, United Kingdom, China, Japan, Italy and India.

Gartner Survey Shows Digital Text Consumption Nearly Equal to Time Spent reading Printed Paper Text