The Xplanation

Welcome to this morning’s Daily Research Update. Today’s themes are news consumption, RSS readers, and new business models. If you want more context for this research, take a look at our Education and Technology Trends for 2010. You may also be interested in our Weekly Research Index, or you can follow our live, daily research on our Current News page.

(Click here to see a simple listing of today’s suggested reading)

The news industry always provides good general trends when it comes to the broad public consumption of information. Pew Research Center for the People & the Press has released its latest biennial survey of news consumption and, while the results are not surprising, there are some interesting nuggets. “Print newspapers and radio are still slipping as sources but U.S. adults are spending more time with news these days when the internet and traditional platforms are combined. The amount of time spent on traditional platforms hasn’t shifted from 57 minutes a day since 2000. Add 13 minutes for internet access and U.S. adults are spending 70 minutes a day on news.” Other tidbits from the report include:

• More people say they mostly get news “from time to time” rather than at “regular times.” The percentage of socalled news grazers as increased nine points (from 48% to 57%) since 2006.
• Search engines are playing a substantially larger role in people’s news gathering habits – 33% regularly use search engines to get news on topics of interest, up from 19% in 2008.
• 10 percent regularly use customized webpages or RSS readers; 9 percent read blogs about politics or current events; 12 percent get news by e-mail; 8 percent by cellphone or smartphone; 1 percent through iPad or tablets.
• 44 percent of cellphone users with internet access have downloaded an app for news access.
• 27 percent go to news blogs regularly for the latest news and headlines compared with 30 percent for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times; 29 percent for views and opinions, compared with 11 percent each for the two papers. At least one third said they regularly go to the two papers for in-depth reporting.

When it comes to getting information, not only do people increasingly go online but they also are heavily influenced by their ’social connections.’

Turning to friends is the new rage in the Web world, extending far beyond established social networking sites and setting off a rush among Web companies looking for ways to help people capitalize on the wisdom of their social circles — and to make some money in the process. ‘What your friends think and what people like you think is much more relevant than what everybody thinks,’ said Augie Ray, an analyst with Forrester Research. Amazon.com now allows its shoppers to connect to their Facebook accounts so that Amazon can display their friends’ favorite books, films and other products. TunerFish, a start-up owned by Comcast, lets users share what television shows and movies they are watching, mapping out an up-to-the-minute TV guide of programs gaining in popularity among their friends.

And, as we look at social influences, I think George Siemens is correct when he says that “The cohesion or sociality that hold an online group together are far less explicit than I recall even a decade ago (Yahoo groups, or prior to that, online bulletin boards, the Well (I never joined)). The enabling structure of engagement is no longer the group or network. Instead, it’s a tweet, or a single picture.” It is precisely these social forces or influencers that have led to the stagnation or decline of many RSS reader services. Rather than sort through the news on their own, most are relying on tips from others via Twitter or Facebook to determine what they consume. That said, Google Reader appears to be an exception to the general decay of RSS readers. “Google Reader’s Mihai Parparita says the service is growing. Parparita’s post includes graphs indicating that the number of Google Reader users (which it defines as the number of people who have used the service at least once a week) is up over the last year, as are the number of items read each day via the service. He recaps some of Google Reader’s milestones and says ‘more and more people (have) picked up the Reader habit.’” Here’s Google’s chart showing the number of Google Reader users:

Also, the fact that Wal-Mart is launching its own own branded wireless plans is but further proof that businesses must think differently (more broadly) in the digital age. They cannot remain in their traditional vertical spaces or rely solely on partnerships with others. Joe Wikert touts a variation of this philosophy when he recommends that bookstores should copy Best Buy’s approach. He says that brick-and-mortar stores “foolishly believe the only way they can win the ebook war is by selling only their device.”

The problem with that logic is they’re focusing on the wrong goal. They’re too busy worrying about device sales when they should be investing more in the content itself. Amazon gets this. That’s why they have a Kindle reader on all the major platforms (e.g., Apple and Android). Even though B&N has a Nook reader for the iPad I never think to buy a Nook book on my iPad. Never. So if you’re B&N or Borders, what do you have to lose by selling the iPad in your stores, for example? Don’t stop there though. Come up with a compelling reason why someone buying an iPad in your store should go to your ebook store (not Apple’s or Amazon’s) so that you get a cut of the device sale but, more importantly, you earn the longer-term ebook business of that same customer. Heck, even a simple loyalty program for customers who buy an iPad from you is a good start; give them a special discount on the purchase of their first couple of ebooks.

Finally, I encourage folks to take a look at Matterhorn, the new open source lecture capture and administration product. This multi-university project provides a scalable alternative to the current commercial offerings on the market.

Suggested Reading

Pew: Online News Use Growing But Traditional Methods Hanging In There | paidContent

Here’s How Digital Media Is Changing The Way We Read And Watch The News

Combing Your Friends’ Tastes, Not the Whole Web’s | NYTimes.com

elearnspace | Granularization of structures influencing of interaction

The Death Of The RSS Reader | paidContent

Google Says Google Reader Is Doing Just Fine | paidContent

Wal-Mart Debuts Its Own Branded Wireless Plans

Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 Blog: Bookstores Should Copy Best Buy’s Approach

Matterhorn Lecture Capture and Administration | Opencast