Report: Global Newspaper TSR Drops 25 Percent

The average amount of Time Spent Reading newspapers fell more than 25% globally from 2010 to 2014 – but the popularity of newsprint has proved resilient in the UK with just a 3% decline over the same period.

The Guardian reports the amount of time spent reading newspapers across the world averaged 16.3 minutes per reader a day last year, down 25.6% from the 21.9 minutes daily average in 2010.

By 2017 the global average will be just 14.1 minutes a day, a 35% fall from 2010 levels, according to a new report by on media consumption by ZenithOptimedia.

However, it seems the UK remains a relative nation of newspaper lovers, with just a 3% decline in average reading time per day from 19.2 minutes to 18.6 minutes from 2010 to 2014.

The report shows that average minutes per day spent reading newspapers actually bucked the global trend in 2013 and 2014, showing 3.4% and 3.3% growth respectively.

By 2017 the average time a newspaper reader will spend browsing will be 18.2 minutes a day, a fall of just 5.4%.

On the face of it the figures make for grim reading, but the report points out that the internet is the big winner of the change in consumer media consumption.