June 25 marks an important day in the history of English journalism, as it is the day it was confirmed that online news has indeed overtaken traditional print newspapers.
U.K. media regulator Ofcom confirms in its annual News Consumption in the U.K. report that 41% of the public get their news mainly from websites and mobile apps, while 40% read newspapers. Ofcom surveyed 2,731 respondents in the U.K. for this report.
"This is a watershed moment," says John Lloyd, director of Journalism at the Reuters Institute. "It shows that the rising generations - and not just teenagers but also 40-somethings - are taking their news from their desktops, mobiles and tablets."
But online isn't the most popular source of news just yet. The honor belongs to television, which is used by 75% of the population. It's worth noting, though, that television has quietly slipped from a 78% usage last year to its current position this year. Newspaper usage hasn't changed. Ofcom reports the same 40% of people turned to the papers for news in 2013 as they still do this year.
Only the Internet and radio saw an increase in usage. The report says radio had a humble increase in users from 35% last year to 36% this year. The biggest rise is websites and mobile apps, which jumped from 31% in 2013 to its current usage of 41% this year.
Ofcom says the rise is largely driven by the widespread Internet use of younger generations, or those in the 16-24 age range. Approximately 60% of adults aged 16 to 24 years old said they accessed the news online, compared to only 44% last year. Some 40% of this generation use mobile phones while only 15% stay ahead of development in current affairs on their tablets.
In contrast, only 4% of older adults, or those aged 55 years old and above, reported using their mobile phones, and only 7% used their tablets. Most respondents in this generation watched an average of 196 hours of television news per year, a far higher number than the 27 hours 18 to 24-year-olds watching news in the living room.
Some 5% of older adults and 10% of younger respondents said they did not read or watch the news at all.
Ofcom's latest findings should help push traditional newspapers online and create ways, such as using a paywall, to monetize their Internet presence, says Lloyd. However, other surveys have suggested that an online newspaper that charges a subscription fee to allow readers to get their news fix can sometimes be detrimental to business.
For instance, the National Readership survey cited the Sun newspaper, which saw a decrease in readership after going online and putting up a paywall. Mainstream online news sources, such as the BBC, Daily Mail, Guardian, Telegraph and local newspapers remain popular, though.
