Mumbai: A recent market survey conducted has indicated that newspapers are truly an essential service and continues to be the most credible source of information. The findings of the survey also provided some interesting insights into how the reader’s reading habits are evolving during pre and post Covid19 period.
The survey was aimed at gauging the impact of the lockdown on ‘reading pattern’ and ‘time-spent’ by the public. The telephonic survey was conducted from April 13, 2020, to April 16, 2020 across 4 states in Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh.
Before the lockdown, 42% of people used to spend more than 30 minutes which has increased to 72% after lockdown, showing a higher engagement of readers.
At the State level, the time spent in Gujarat has doubled with an increase of 73% after lockdown.
Increase in Avid Readership
The report clearly highlights that Avid readership has more than doubled across all the 4 states, Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest growth with 40% followed by 37% in Bihar.
Decrease in Causal Readership
This is usually the ones who spent less than 15 minutes on Newspaper, at an overall level before lockdown it was 14% which dropped to 3% in the after lockdown period.
The report highlights that casual readership has dropped by more than 80% during lockdown period. Gujarat witnessed the lowest with 1% followed by Madhya Pradesh and Bihar both with a drop of 3%.
Average Time Spent by Readers in Terms of Minutes
Madhya Pradesh and Bihar witnessed the highest time spent of 62 minutes after lockdown as compared to Rajasthan and Gujarat. The report mentions that average time spent by readers has increased by 58% during LockDown.
Newspaper Reading Pattern
Gujarat witnessed the highest with 71% increase followed by Rajasthan with 56% in one time sitting newspaper reading pattern. Madhya Pradesh with 48% in multiple times read during the day reading pattern.
Key findings from the survey are as below:
(i) Readers who spent more than 30 minutes in reading newspapers increased from 42% pre-lockdown to 72% and consequently the average time spent increased from 38 minutes pre lockdown to 60 minutes;
(ii) Readers who spent more than an hour with their newspaper increased from 16% pre-lockdown to 38%;
(iii) Readers who spent less than 15 minutes on their newspaper decreased from 14% pre-lockdown to 3%.
(iv) 38 % people are reading newspaper for more than 1 hour.
(v) 42% people reading the newspaper reading multiple times.
