Transitioning: Millennials' Media Consumption Habits
Consumer Attitudes
November 15, 2012 -- Millennials are the first generation to come of age during the digital revolution, making them society’s prominent early adapters. For a recent study, consumer insights firm Scarborough examined this generation's behaviors and attitudes regarding media’s continuous evolution.
Highlights:
-
Media engagement by younger people has evolved over the past ten years with a transition from traditional news media toward more digital media.
|
A Decade of Media Consumption: Evolution from Analog to Digital (Adults 21 – 34) |
|||
|
|
2001 |
2006 |
2011 |
|
Traditional |
|||
|
Daily Newspaper Avg Issue Readership |
40% |
35% |
24% |
|
Listened to News/Talk/Information/ Personality Radio Past Week |
15% |
15% |
14% |
|
Household Subscribes to Cable TV |
67% |
58% |
52% |
|
AM Local TV News |
N/A |
33% |
32% |
|
Evening Local TV News |
N/A |
42% |
36% |
|
PM Local TV News |
N/A |
26% |
25% |
|
National/Network TV News |
N/A |
24% |
19% |
|
Digital |
|||
|
Spend 20+ Hrs on Internet in Avg Week |
8% |
11% |
20% |
|
Listened to Online Radio Past 30 Days |
N/A |
13% |
27% |
|
Internet News |
33% |
42% |
44% |
|
Internet Sports Scores/Updates |
18% |
20% |
27% |
|
Internet Financial Information/Services |
19% |
21% |
20% |
|
Source: Scarborough USA+ Study, November 2012 *In order to accurately trend young people over the course of ten years for this chart, Scarborough analyzed adults age 21-34 instead of Millennials as most Millennials were not adults (and therefore not measured) in 2001. |
|||
-
Millennials are more likely than any other generation to have diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds; 43% of Millennials identify as a race or ethnicity other than white as compared with 38% of Generation X (ages 30-44) and 26% of Baby Boomers (ages 45-64).
|
Millennial Ethnicity |
||||||
|
|
Millennials |
GenerationX |
Baby Boomers |
|||
|
|
% of Population |
Index |
% of Population |
Index |
% of Population |
Index |
|
White |
57% |
83 |
62% |
89 |
74% |
107 |
|
African American |
13% |
119 |
11% |
104 |
11% |
102 |
|
Asian/Other |
9% |
150 |
7% |
122 |
5% |
82 |
|
Hispanic |
21% |
149 |
20% |
139 |
10% |
72 |
| Source: Scarborough USA+ Study, November 2012 | ||||||
-
Millennials are 53% more likely than all U.S. adults to feel that social media sites are very important for finding information about news and current events. With that said, more the half (52%) of young adults have read a newspaper in the past week.
|
Millennial News Consumption Media |
||
|
Media |
% of Respondents |
|
|
Read a newspaper in the past week (print or e-edition) |
52% |
|
|
Used the internet for local news (past 30 days) |
34% |
|
|
Used the internet for national news (past 30 days) |
30% |
|
|
Visited a newspaper website (past 30 days) |
28% |
|
|
Used a mobile device to read a newspaper (past 30 days) |
18% |
|
|
Source: Scarborough USA+ Study, November 2012 |
||
About: Scarborough employs a two-phase methodology to collect consumer information: a telephone interview (which measures newspaper, radio, and local media website usage and demographics) followed by a mailed, self-administered consumer booklet and seven-day television diary. Scarborough is in-field collecting data 44 weeks of the calendar year to even-out any marketplace disruptions or seasonality issues. Data is released to Scarborough clients twice per year. Scarborough’s annual sample size is 210,000 adults nationally.
Source: Scarborough, OMG! Does Media Reach Millennials?, November 15, 2012.
