A new survey by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and The Economist Group—entitled The Tablet Revolution: How People Use Tablets and What it Means for the Future of News—has some depressing news of its own for media interests hoping that the ascendency of media tablets will serve as a lever to monitize news dissemination on the Internet. The researchers found that just 14 percent of tablet news consumers have paid directly for news content on their tablets, while another 23 percent had a subscription to a print newspaper or magazine that offered digital access, cumulatively amounting to a modest 37 percent. Not only that, the large majority of tablet-users who have not paid directly for news remain resistant to doing so, even it was the only way to get news from their favorite sources.
The Pew report notes that eighteen months after the iPad's introduction, 11% of U.S. adults now own a tablet computer of some kind, about half (53%) get news on their tablet every day, and they read long articles as well as get headlines. Consuming news (everything from the latest headlines to in-depth articles and commentary) ranks as one of the most popular activities on the tablet, indeed about as popular as sending and receiving email (54% email daily on their tablet), and more popular than social networking (39%), gaming (30%), reading books (17%) or watching movies and videos (13%). The only activity that people said they were more likely to do on their tablet computer daily is browse the web generally (67%). A large majority of tablet computer users still want to read news content for free.
The study also reveals that while about two-thirds of tablet news users have a news app on their tablet so far, the browser, carried over from the desktop experience, remains the most popular medium for consuming news, with a plurality of tablet news users (40%) saying they get their news mainly through a web browser. Another 31% use news apps and the browser equally, while fewer, 21%, get their news primarily through apps.
A glimmer of hope for news organizations developing and promoting news apps is found in that tablet news users who primarily use apps for news are the most avid consumers of news on tablets, consuming news more heavily, and in more different ways. This cohort also reports higher levels of enjoyment and learning from their news experience.
Nevertheless, the researchers conclude that revenue potential for news on tablets may be limited, with cost a factor even among this heavy news consuming population. Of those who haven't paid directly, only 21% say they would be willing to spend $5 per month if that were the only way to access their favorite source on the tablet. And of those who have news apps, fully 83% say that being free or low cost was a major factor in their decision about what to download.
The survey also found that the iPad still dominates the market, with 81% of tablet users in this survey owning the Apple product. Tablet news consumers are also well-educated, with 51% having graduated from college, compared with 28% of all U.S. adults; 62% are fully employed compared with 44% of the population overall (and just 26% are not employed, including those who have never worked, are retired or are currently out of work versus 41% overall). Tablet users are nearly twice as likely as U.S. adults overall to have a household income of at least $75,000 per year (53% versus 28%).
Tablet users are more likely than the general public to follow the news frequently, and to turn to the Internet as a main source for news more than the public overall, and are far more likely to get a better understanding of major news events by reading or hearing about them, with a preference for reading or listening over watching.
When it came to what people like about the tablet, better access to news content was named most often, with the next most-mentioned attribute being general ease of use (19%), from the tablet's portability to its speed and size.
On the negative side, most frequently cited was the iPad's lack of Adobe Flash technology (which results in users being unable to view a good deal of video and graphics).
This survey finds that, at least when it comes to news, the tablet has made some difference, but the majority are still far from being willing to pay, even among this first generation of tablet users who are heavy news consumers. Price does make a difference. Half of the respondents were asked if they would pay $5 and half asked if they would pay $10. Those asked to pay $5 were more than twice as likely to say they would be willing to do so as those asked to pay $10 (21% for $5 and 10% for $10).
Contrary to many expectations, news apps have not become the primary interface for news on tablets. Fully 40% of tablet news users rely primarily on browser access for news, while fewer than a third, 31%, say they use both their browser and apps equally. Just 21% rely mainly on apps, and of those who do, the software being free or low cost is one of the strongest factors in the decision to download an app—83% of those using news apps say this was a major factor in their decision to download, and just a small minority, 14% of tablet news users, have paid anything for news on their tablet.
Those who have paid are more likely than news users overall to be male (69% among those who have paid versus 52% of those who have not paid), more highly educated (68% have a college education compared with 54% of those who have not paid), less likely than browser users to be conservative (20% versus 30% of those who have not paid, with 38% of those who have paid describing themselves as liberal compared with 29% of those who have not paid), and, unsurprisingly tend to have more money to spend, with fully 60% of those who have paid something for news having household incomes of at least $100,000 compared with 45% of tablet news users overall.
Meanwhile, only about one-in-four tablet owners, 39%, use their tablet daily for social networking on sites like Facebook and Twitter compared with a 2010 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 65% of all online adults saying they were social network users and 29% of adults with cell phones who reported using SNS on their phones, and the youngest age group, 18-to 29-year-olds, being the most likely to do social networking on the tablet, with six-in-ten 18-29 year olds accessing social networks daily on their tablets.
You can read an exhaustive abstract of the survey findings at journalism.org.
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