This part of the report is likely to become even more interesting when we have trend data, and can see how consumption patterns are changing over time. Currently we can get some clues to this by comparing the consumption habits of older and younger respondents. Our data set is primarily from the UK, but in subsequent years we would like to extend this to other countries.

We found that the vast majority of people consume news at home, with around one-fifth consuming it in an office and a similar proportion whilst travelling. Consumption in an office is higher amongst men than women, which is what we would expect as we know that more men than women work full-time.

Likewise, office consumption is higher amongst people from higher social grades, who are more likely to have office-based jobs. In terms of age, 25–44 year olds are more likely than other age groups to consume news in an office, and 16–24 year olds are more likely than other age groups to consume news in a place of study.

As we might expect, consuming news whilst travelling is more common amongst people who access news on a mobile phone, a tablet, or an e-reader, as those devices are well-suited to consuming news on the move. News consumption whilst travelling is also more common amongst those who listen to news on the radio, as this is the default medium for car drivers.

We also asked people how long they spend consuming news on different platforms on a typical day. We have been cautious in the way we interpret this data, because we know that time spent is a difficult thing for people to estimate accurately. Having said that, it was no surprise to see that people spend the longest amount of time consuming news on television, and the shortest amount of time consuming news on mobile devices.

For the traditional media platforms, time spent by users aged 45 or over is greater than time spent by younger users. But for the new media platforms the opposite is true, with mobiles showing the greatest disparity. This suggests that for news consumers over the age of 45, the mobile is only used for short bursts of news consumption, whereas for younger consumers it can be used for quite significant lengths of time.

The most popular times for accessing news are first thing in the morning and early evening, which makes sense as we’ve seen that the most popular place to access the news is at home. Qualitative research has shown that people like to feel up-to-date with the news, and this drives them to seek out the latest headlines when they wake up in the morning, and before they go to bed. These regular checks reassure people that they know about any events that might affect them, and they know enough to partake in conversations about the news.

A quarter of respondents told us that they like to access news throughout the day. As we might expect, those who consume news throughout the day tend to consume news on a greater range of platforms, and from a greater range of sources than average. They are also more likely than average to consume news on mobiles and tablets, which makes sense as these portable devices facilitate regular news access.

16–24 year olds have quite different patterns of news consumption compared to other age groups. Their peak usage time is first thing in the morning. The lunchtime and early evening peaks that we see for older age groups aren’t present in this group. This could be because around 40% of them are in full-time education, and this is also supported by BARB¹ data which suggests that younger age groups are less likely to watch TV news bulletins than older age groups.

The pattern of news consumption also varies between our three segments. As we would expect, news absorbed users are more likely to consume news throughout the day, with 53% of them claiming to do so, compared to 27% of news mainstreamers and 14% of news light users. If we exclude those who consume news throughout the day, we can see that the remaining news absorbed show a similar pattern of news consumption to the news mainstreamers, although they’re more likely to check news last thing at night. This fits with the high level of mobile and tablet news consumption amongst this group, as qualitative research has shown that these devices are often used for a last check of the headlines before bed. News light users are most likely to consume news in the early evening, with lower levels of early morning consumption and lunchtime consumption than the other groups.

These data can’t tell us how different platforms are used at different times of the day, but we know from BARB data that TV news consumption peaks in the early evening and around 10pm, with smaller peaks in the early morning and around lunchtime. By contrast, RAJAR² shows that radio news consumption peaks in the morning, with smaller peaks at lunchtime and drive time.

Web analytics data for the BBC News site tells an interesting story about how different online platforms are used in a complementary way.

Desktop usage of the BBC News site peaks at lunchtimes Monday – Friday, as office workers check the headlines during their lunch breaks. Mobile usage peaks in the early morning and evening, as people are commuting to and from work. Tablet usage peaks in the evening and at the weekend, which fits with other data that suggest that tablets are predominantly used in the home.