More people read papers, but spend less time on them

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More people are reading newspapers today - but spending a little less time
with them when they do - according to a survey released by the US Readership
Institute, a division of the Media Management Center at Northwestern
University. The study notes that reader behaviour scores (RBS) rose in 2003
to 3.56 (on a scale of 1-7) from 3.24 in 2002. The number one denotes
someone who does not read the local daily newspaper and seven represents a
reader who spends a lot of time with the paper. Not surprisingly, age is a
primary factor for readership. Despite fresh efforts by many papers to reach
younger readers, the RBS continues to drop among the youngest age group
polled, those 18-24, with a score of 2.68 in 2003. That number was 2.95 in
2002. Young people that do read papers tend to purchase single copies. RBS
numbers among those 65 and older have the strongest showing among all age
groups and increased the most sharply, 4.44 in 2003 from 3.91 the year
prior. However, the average time that people spend with newspapers is down.
Readers spend 26 minutes per day during the week reading the paper (down
from 27 minutes in 2002) and 57 minutes on Sunday (down from 64 minutes).

Source:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content
_id=1000454563