Havas reveals digital reading, device habits

French advertiser Havas Media has posted a study in the past week that suggests digital news has overtaken print. Of a relatively small but representative 600-person group, the average person spent 37 minutes reading some form of digital news and just 22 minutes with print. Most of that was still on the web at 51 percent, but 31 percent were downloading offline versions and 17 percent were using apps on an iPad or another platform.

Those who have tablets also lean on them significantly for news. Although not as popular as overall web use (77 percent), e-mail (66 percent), or videos (62 percent), about 56 percent of tablet owners said they were using theirs to read major media, regardless of what method they used. French app use was very low at just an average of seven free and four paid apps, although this was an exception to a rule where those in the US have about 48 apps.

Reading has been one of the activities slowest to move to digital but has seen a tidal shift in the past year. Amazon now sells more Kindle e-books than all paper kinds, and Barnes & Noble has reported doing the same. The limited visual accuracy of grayscale e-readers has left newspapers and magazines lagging until the iPad, which is so far the lead choice through a large enough color touchscreen.

Apple for a time lagged behind on serving up subscriptions but, as of iOS 5, will be pushing hard with the addition of Newsstand and background issue downloads. Android was for a time expected to step up competition, but poor Android 3 tablet sales and a lack of native apps has given the iPad control by a wide margin both of tablets and digital subscriptions. [via Monday Note]

By Electronista Staff