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Facebook now main source of news for young people – Reuters

Facebook logoThe rise of social media is “undermining” the business models of news publishers according to a new report.

A study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism says social media has overtaken television for the first time as young people’s main source of news.

It showed that 51pc of all online users surveyed said they used social media as a news source, with one in 10 saying it was their main method.

But the number of 18-24 year-olds who said they used social media as their main news source surpassed those who watched news on television, at 28pc compared with 24pc.

The report suggested that sites such as Facebook are increasingly influential in the distribution of news content.

It also went on to argue that the rise of social media platforms for consuming news and the move to mobile was “undermining” the business models of quality news publishers.

Reuters Institute director of research Rasmus Kleis Nielsen said: “The move towards a more distributed environment offers publishers opportunities to reach new audiences on an unprecedented scale.

“But as people increasingly access news via third party platforms, it will become harder and harder for most publishers to stand out from the crowd, connect directly with users, and make money. This development will leave some winners, and many losers.”

Traditional newspaper brands still lead the way in producing most of the digital content, followed by broadcasters and digital sites such as Buzzfeed and the Huffington Post, the institute said.

It surveyed around 50,000 people including 2,000 Britons as part of the research.

15 comments

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  • June 16, 2016 at 7:04 am
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    None of this is surprising but it does spell the end of traditional publishers (especially lumbering corporates like NQ, JP and TM) where the revenue decline in the first half of this year alone has been alarming. Money on the scale generated by newspapers just 20 years ago has gone for good, but the corporations have not cut their cloth accordingly, seeking to sustain their bloated hierarchies of non-performers at the expense of the shopfloor workers who actually generate what profits are left. The Facebook-shaped future lies in smaller, truly local outfits where staff can turn their hands to all tasks – from admin to sales to editorial production to cleaning the toilets. There won’t be jobs/careers in the traditional sense and, as a final word of warning to all those clinging onto such a position, I’d say plan your alternative right now, today. Within two-three years all these posts will be gone – fact!

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  • June 16, 2016 at 8:46 am
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    To be fair though, young people these days are quite thick.

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  • June 16, 2016 at 9:15 am
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    I’m just wondering who will be writing all this copy for Facebook that no one wants to pay for?

    It’s all very well banging on about hyper-local but these are usually only one man band operations and they all eventually get bored, too busy, a girlfriend… and stop producing their hyper-local copy to go down the pub and chat with their mates.

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  • June 16, 2016 at 9:23 am
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    If you do an online survey of where people get their news, it’s no surprise if the answer is “online”.
    If you do a print-based survey of where people get their news, it’s no surprise if the answer is “print”.
    However, this survey showed that even among 18-24 year olds, only 28% said they used social media as their main news source. So 72% didn’t.
    Given that only 4% of the sample were “Britons” (should that say ‘people living in Britain’, or ‘people living in the UK’?), it would be a huge leap to claim that the results prove anything about the situation in the UK.
    Overall though, the results are surprisingly positive for non-digital, with only ’51pc of all online users surveyed said they used social media as a news source’. It’s amazing if 49% of people who are willing to complete on online survey have never used social media as a news source.

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  • June 16, 2016 at 10:28 am
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    NQ,TM and JP like oil tankers trying to compete in a yacht race. Off course and about to hit the rocks.

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  • June 16, 2016 at 11:36 am
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    @ Echo…

    I disagree. The cultural Chernobyl that is the likes of the X Factor, reality TV and some aspects of social media has created a generation of kids that spend all day wandering aound with their heads up their backsides.

    Universities used to be alive with activism, social, political, now the only thing they’re alive with is crabs.

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  • June 16, 2016 at 12:15 pm
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    Jeff Jones has a point. Having just finished a degree as a full time student, I was disappointed with the lack of activism in the student community. They stirred briefly when there was a movement to deny certain people, like Germaine Greer, the right to speak at uni events but that seemed to be a reaction to online hysteria. The Students’ Union is now an arm of the management, with its most radical act the organisation of the “Most Inspirational Lecturer Award”. The local SU President sits on the university main board. When we studied the Spanish Civil War, there were several students in my cohort who had no idea where Spain was. So the information needs of this section of the community has sailed off into the sunset as far as the traditional news providers are concerned, never to return.

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  • June 16, 2016 at 1:02 pm
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    ” ….The move towards a more distributed environment offers publishers opportunities to reach new audiences on an unprecedented scale”
    Reaching an audience isn’t the issue,that’s the easy part, monetising it as part of a company’s business model where huge overheads and costs are tied in is the real issue and one that won’t be solved by a newspapers popularity on social media sites.

    We all know the uk regional press in 2016 is in freefall and is all about managing decline and milking markets for as long as they can before the well runs dry and the readership base has completely gone,and when it has social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, along with new independent local publishers offering hyper local content and focussing on target audiences will continue to grow.

    And Gus flair is correct, encumbering the business with huge costs for ad staff and middle managers who are underperforming and unprofitable yet highly paid is adding to the problem and quickening the decline

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  • June 16, 2016 at 1:19 pm
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    @gus
    I work for an independent local publisher of the type you describe and it is exactly as you say with all pulling together, working as one team,Unencumbered by heirarchies or levels of management and the business is very very profitable and thriving, and yes we are happy to empty the waste paper baskets and even pop out to but the milk! You do that when you feel part of team and valued, something those working for the bigger groups might struggle to comprehend.
    majority of the staff are all ex regional press who know the weakenesses of their old companies and exploit them to our benefit, small matters such as customer care, top quality writing,professional photographers used as and when at decent rates and everyone contributing to the end products we produce, unfortunately for the bigger players they are so entrenched in otheir od ways, old thinking, traditional roles and responsibilities that they’ll never move fiorward ,good news for us in the independent sector, bad news for the good people still in the regional press but who are likely to be dragged down with the sinking ship unless they bail out pdq, the need is to think of themselves rather than their employers as believe me once they’re considered a cost that can be saved they’ll be out.
    Plenty of work for talented, hard working individuals in the ‘real world’ I can assure you.

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  • June 16, 2016 at 5:26 pm
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    @Jeff Jones: To be honest, Jeff, I agree with you, but it’s not just the kids. To explain my point a little more. Maybe it’s different where you live, but the entire adult population around here seem to spend their lives with their faces in their iphones. When I was (a lot) younger, we were pretty thick (as regards what was going on around us) because all we were interested in was football, what colour underwear Elsie Plunkett was wearing and if we could scam half a Guinness in the local at the age of 14. These days, Elsie could strut down the high street naked and nobody would take any notice because they’d all be engrossed in the latest video of juggling cats. Ignorant or not, at least we were something approaching alive and not social media obsessed zombies.

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  • June 16, 2016 at 9:02 pm
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    Traditional publishers, such as my local newspaper, publish articles on Facebook, which equals no revenue, Having read articles on FB, fewer people are buying the paper. Talk about cutting one’s own throat. I fear the company which runs the paper, and many others, has lost the plot!

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  • June 16, 2016 at 10:45 pm
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    Jeff Jones ‘young people these days are quite thick’. I trust you were not serious in that comment. If so it’s a sweeping generalisation that is an insult to our young who are more focussed than my generation ever was.
    Up North, Up North social media may only account for 28 per cent but you can bet your life that the remaining 72 per cent is not from printed media. It’s more likely to be the BBC app on their phones or tablets.

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