How do Millennials prefer their News - Pew Research

[kennyc]

How Do Millennials Like to Read the News? Very Much Like Their Grandparents
By Derek Thompson


Attention publishers: For all the attention given to "bold rich multi-media experiences," young mobile news readers still prefer stories the way their great-great-grandparents did: In columns of text.

In the eyes of employers, marketers, and brand gurus, Generation Y tends to be treated like a separate species, forged in the primordial stew of Internet, whose habits are so positively alien to the rest of the country that they've inspired a cottage industry: The How-Do-You-Solve-a-Problem-Like-Millennials? genre.

But a new report from the Pew Research Center (pdf) suggests that, when it comes to reading the news on mobile devices, young people aren't so different. First, they use their tablets and smartphones to read the news at nearly identical rates to 30- and 40-somethings. According to Pew, between 30 and 50 percent of practically every demographic, except seniors, uses mobile phones and tablets to read news -- whether it's men or women, college-educated or not, making less than $30,000 per year or more than $75,000. All told: Thirtysomethings and fortysomethings are just as likely as teens and twentysomethings to use their smartphones and tablets for news.

There are some small differences. Men are more likely to read longer articles. Women are more likely to use social media. Non-whites are more likely to watch videos. But the trends are consistent across the under-50 demographic. When it comes to reading the news, Millennials aren't the unique demographic. Seniors who haven't transitioned from print are.

Here's another surprise. Young mobile readers don't want apps and mobile browsers that look like the future. They want apps that look like the past: 58% of those under 50, and 60% of Millennials, prefer a "print-like experience" over tech features like audio, video, and complex graphics. That preference toward plain text "tends to hold up across age, gender and other groups." Pew reports: "Those under 40 prefer the print-like experience to the same degree as those 40 and over."

Publishers be warned: For all the attention given to *rich multi-media experiences* news-readers still enjoy reading the news the way their great-grandparents did: In columns of paragraphs.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...arents/266126/

[elcreative]

Wow, isn't that a surprise... guess those of us, who want to read things rather than "immerse in a multi-media experience," aren't actually the dinosaurs that some people think we are...

[kennyc]

My thoughts exactly.

[DustyDisks]

Originally Posted by elcreative

Wow, isn't that a surprise... guess those of us, who want to read things rather than "immerse in a multi-media experience," aren't actually the dinosaurs that some people think we are...

Sounds like there is hope for those whippersnappers after all.

[Ninjalawyer]

As someone closer in age to millennials than some above (by the tone of the posts), I find this, deeply unsurprising. The meme that the "younger generation" is a race of uneducated Morlocks isn't so much played out as ancient.

[JD Gumby]

Bet they'd also find that Millennials don't want all that social crap in their reading devices as well...

[Synamon]

The words are the message!

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by JD Gumby

Bet they'd also find that Millennials don't want all that social crap in their reading devices as well...

"That social crap" is actually more Boomer territory. The Olds loves 'em some Facebook

Although, I work with a lot of young'uns and they really are crazy about Twitter and Instagram.

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

As someone closer in age to millennials than some above (by the tone of the posts), I find this, deeply unsurprising. The meme that the "younger generation" is a race of uneducated Morlocks isn't so much played out as ancient.

Where did you get that from??? The whole point of the article is that "millennials" are just people who prefer to read news just like other made-up "marketing groups... were's the "tone" in that... the comment about it not being surprising was clearly aimed at the article not the people...

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by JD Gumby

Bet they'd also find that Millennials don't want all that social crap in their reading devices as well...

Isn't that precisely what the article says...

[JacksonGirl]

What a surprise -- I am a normal human, after all! Drat!

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by elcreative

Isn't that precisely what the article says...

Most of the people putting that crap in, however, don't seem to count it as "bold rich multi-media experiences" (just as a way to get marketing data, of course).

[vxf]

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

As someone closer in age to millennials than some above (by the tone of the posts), I find this, deeply unsurprising. The meme that the "younger generation" is a race of uneducated Morlocks isn't so much played out as ancient.

The sad truth is that it is not the 'younger generation' to be a race of uneducated Morlocks.
It's the whole human race.

... I am grading finals. I guess it always makes me despair in the intellectual capabilities of the human race. It's incredible how little we ask of our students. Yet, they never fail to deliver even less.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by vxf

....

... I am grading finals. I guess it always makes me despair in the intellectual capabilities of the human race....

You poor thing, my son is going through the same experience this week...

[QuantumIguana]

"I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on
frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond
words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and
respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise
[disrespectful] and impatient of restraint" (Hesiod, 8th century BC).