Tablets bringing on end of print?
Not just yet, perhaps. But a report from ComScore says an increasing number of tablet owners in the U.S. are using their slates to read e-periodicals each day.
Tablets are "reinventing" Americans' relationship with print publications, according to a new report from digital-business analytics firm ComScore.
Based on new figures, more and more tablet owners in the United States are using their tablets to read digital periodicals on a daily basis. For example, ComScore cited that approximately 1 in 10 tablet owners read digital magazines and/or newspapers on his or her device every day as of August 2012.
Mark Donovan, senior vice president of mobile at ComScore, explained in the report that tablets are "redefining" how people consume news because the format is much more suited for long-form content than PCs or smartphones:
In the case of online newspapers, tablets are now driving 7 percent of total page views, an impressive figure considering the relative infancy of the tablet space. Publishers that understand how these devices are shifting consumption dynamics will be best positioned to leverage this platform to not only drive incremental engagement among current subscribers but also attract new readers.
But which devices they're using tends to factor in to which kinds of periodicals they're reading, how often they're reading, and how long each reading session is.
Here's a snapshot of which tablets seemed to be the most popular for a given purpose:
- Kindle Fire: Highest readership rate for digital magazines, at 43.9 percent, and newspapers, at 39.2 percent
- Nook: Greatest percentage of high-frequency newspaper readers, with 13.4 percent reading papers on a near-daily basis
- iPad: Second-highest readership rate for digital magazines, at 40.3 percent
For reference, ComScore's monthly syndicated service TabLens conducted this survey during the 3-month period ending August 2012, with a sample size of 6,000 tablet owners nationwide.
This story originally appeared at ZDNet's Between the Lines under the headline "ComScore: Kindle Fire has highest readership rates for digital magazines, newspapers."