Study: iPads Hurting Newspapers?

A study conducted by the Reynolds Journalism Institute indicates that Apple's iPad could hurt the newspaper industry as users drop print subscriptions in favor of reading newspaper content on the device.

According to a story  at newsandtech.com, the survey, funded by Digital Publishing Alliance, polled 1,600 iPad users, finding them to be predominantly well-educated, affluent men between the ages of 35 and 64.

While using the iPad to follow breaking news and current events was deemed the most popular use of the device, a "statistically significant" portion of the survey — 58 percent of the 931 respondents who subscribe to print newspapers — said they are likely to cancel their subscriptions within the next six months and use the iPad to read newspaper content, the survey said.

Additionally, the study found that 10 percent of respondents had already canceled their subscriptions to printed newspapers and switched to reading digital newspapers on their iPad.

"Correlation analysis shows that the more one uses the iPad for news consumption, the less he or she uses printed newspapers," the study said. "While these negative correlations between iPad news use and printed newspaper use aren't incredibly strong, they are statistically significant."

Read more here.

Also read here:

iPad Newspaper Apps Could Slash Print Subscriptions (paidcontent.org)