This report has focused predominantly on providing clear analysis of how users in different countries vary in their online news behaviour. This essay focuses on the UK in particular, and examines some key subgroups – age, socio-economic group,¹ in the UK, in particular in the third quarter of 2012 where we saw large jumps in news (and sport) app usage, most likely associated with finding out news and information around the Olympic (and potentially the Paralympic) games. and gender – to provide a more nuanced picture of the variations that can be found relating to news habits and attitudes.

Do men and women have significantly different news consumption habits, and do they find the same types of news important? Are younger people consuming more or less news than older age groups, and do they interact with news in different ways? What role does socio-economic group play in consumption habits?

This essay begins by setting out the importance that people attach to different types of news. It describes which platforms are used for news, and shows the different types of source people say they use for political and for entertainment news. It examines how different groups find online news – the gateways through which they navigate – and describes the types of online news used and the extent of interactivity carried out.

It is important to remember at the outset that this survey is based on online users of news – older people are less likely to have internet access by a considerable margin (46% of 65+ compared to 90% of 16–24s in 2012²), and so differences in habit and attitude are certainly even more stark than these findings suggest if widened out to the UK population as a whole. The analysis of differences by age can also offer an indication of the possible direction of travel in news consumption, if younger people’s habits endure as they get older.³

The importance of news

First of all, how personally important do people find various news topics? The figure below, ‘Personal importance of types of news’, shows that, for almost all news topics, online users aged 65+ are more likely to rate them as important than those aged 18–24. The divergence is particularly great for local and regional news and economics news – and even news about the UK is something that 75% of 65+ say is important compared to 61% of 18–24s.

This indicates a greater overall engagement among older users with news, which tallies with findings elsewhere,⁴ as well as their more frequent news consumption.

The three exceptions are science and technology, entertainment and celebrity, and arts news, where younger people are far more likely than older people to find these personally important. Indeed, the 25–34 age group (not shown on the chart) is most likely to find entertainment and celebrity news important (37%) compared to 25% for 18–24s and 7% for 65+.

Turning to differences by socio-economic group, online users in C2DE households are more likely to find local and regional news important than those in ABC1 households (59% of C2DEs say that local news is important compared to 44% of ABC1s). People from AB households are over twice as likely as DEs to find business and financial news important – 28% vs 12%, and considerably more likely to find UK political news important – 43% vs 33%.

There are many gender differences, with women finding local and regional news more important, and men business, financial, and economic news. Women are twice as likely to find health news important (38% vs 18%) and three times as likely to nominate entertainment and celebrity news – 29% vs 10%. Men are three times as likely to nominate sports (49% vs 15%) and twice as likely to nominate science/technology (29% vs 16%).

Use of platforms for news

Given the survey sample is one of online users, the internet is a key news platform for most age groups, as Figure 4.19 shows. That said, television remains the most-used platform for news at an overall level (79%) and for those aged 45+.

Differences between age groups are substantial – 57% of 18–24s said they’d accessed news on TV in the last week, compared to 90% of those aged 55+. The figures are reversed for online news access, with 83% of 18–24s saying they use the internet for news, compared to 52% of those aged 65+. Newspapers are also much more likely to be used by older groups (70% of 65+) than younger groups (41% of 18–24s).

Turning to socio-economic groups, there is no difference for the use of TV across each individual group. However, there are considerable differences for radio: 47% of people from AB households use the radio for news, compared to 28% of those from DE households. By gender, men are more likely than women to use the radio for news.

Sources used for different types of news

As well as understanding which sources people say they use in general, we wanted to see whether news sources differ for different types of news. When asked which types of ways they used to keep up with political and government issues, older people are more likely to say they use broadcast and print sources. The pattern for younger people is quite different – some two in five 18–24s say they use word of mouth, and social media, to find out about these issues.

Online news users from AB households are more likely to say they use national press sources than those in DE households (60% vs 50%), and more likely to use specialist magazine sources (11% vs 4%).

Turning to entertainment news, the picture is more mixed (Figure 4.21). TV and national press dominate overall, but for younger groups, word of mouth and social media are as likely to be used as the national press and TV. The national press is less likely to be used by 18–24s.

Gateways to online news

The ways that people find news is very important to monitor – discoverability patterns are going to be an increasingly important arena for competitive news providers.

Figure 4.22 shows how different age groups say they find news online. Respondents could nominate up to five ways, and so the higher overall numbers for those aged under 45 indicate they are more likely to use a variety of means, with those aged 35–44 most likely to do so. Branded news sites are the most popular means for all age groups. However, for over one quarter of 18–24s, search engines and word of mouth are used (28% and 27% respectively).

In terms of socio-economic group, ABs are much more likely than DEs to use a branded news site (39% vs 25%). Otherwise, there is little difference for most elements including search engines or social media. People in DE groups are most likely to say they don’t know how they find their news (25% compared to 12% of ABs).

When these types of gateway are aggregated, at an overall level a majority (54%) say that they mainly access news via a branded news provider. Each age group is also more likely to give this response. However, one-third of 18–34s say that they mainly access news via a search engine, social network, or aggregator, and this is also true of one in five online users aged 45+.

New ways of reaching news content are thus the norm for a significant minority of online news users, and if younger people continue to use these newer forms of discoverability as they grow older, then branded news as a core means of navigation looks set to diminish further.

Types of online news source

In addition to understanding how people get to online news, it is also important to identify which types of online news content they are using. As Figure 4.24 illustrates, ‘traditional’ news media dominate in terms of news source, for younger groups as well as older groups. Nearly half of online news respondents (45%) say they use broadcast websites, and 35% that they use newspaper websites. The dominance of broadcast websites is most probably attributable to the BBC News website.

Younger age groups are more likely to say they use various types of online news source, with older age groups being less likely to nominate a variety of news sources overall. Two in five 18–24s say they use social media for news, and three in ten 25–34s.

By gender, men are more likely than women to use most online sources, although there is no difference in the use of social media for news.

We also asked online users to nominate the ways that they were accessing news content, to gauge the extent to which people are reading or watching news, or using other means of consumption. As Figure 4.25 shows, print-based use is most common, with two in five saying they read news headlines and one in three saying they read longer news stories. Around one-quarter say they watch live TV news channels online, with those aged 65+ more likely to do so than 18–24s. Conversely, 18–24s are more likely to use apps, and to read news blogs, than older users.

It is of note that older users, despite being online, are employing ‘traditional’ means of consumption on the platform. It will be interesting to see whether this pattern changes as the older user base grows, or whether this will endure for some time to come.

People in AB households are more likely to look at headlines (41% vs 33%) and read longer stories (36% vs 24%) than those in DE households, although there is no difference in terms of watching live TV online.

Interaction with online news

Finally, this essay examines the demographic differences in relation to how people share news online. Figure 4.26 shows the extent to which news users are active in terms of sharing news stories online. Three in ten online (29%) users aged 25–34 say they have passed on a link to some type of online news story, and a quarter (27%) of 18–24s. This decreases to 10% of online users aged 65+. Overall, nearly one in five (18%) of online news users say they have shared a story.

Those from AB households are more likely to say they have shared a story than those in DE households (21% vs 15%), and men (21%) are more likely than women (16%) to say they have done so.

Online users were also asked to nominate the various ways that they share or participate in news coverage. Nearly half (44%) say they do this face to face or on the phone, while nearly one quarter (23%) of 18–24s say they communicate online about a story. One in five 18–24s say they share a news story using social networking, and around one in eight of this age group say they comment on stories. Online users aged 65+ are far less likely to comment or share stories in this way, although they are more likely than 18–24s to share a story via email.

There is little difference by socio-economic group, but men are more likely than women to say they vote in an online poll (13% vs 9%) and comment on a news story on a news website (10% vs 5%). Women are however more likely to say they talk with friends and colleagues face to face or on the phone (49% vs 39%).

In summary, we have seen a variety of differences between different ages, socio-economic groups, and gender. Younger people are, unsurprisingly, more likely to be employing newer, less news-brand-oriented, means of navigation. That said, one in five older users say they mainly access their news via these means. In terms of consumption, younger users are more likely to be accessing news in a variety of ways, although overall older people are more frequent consumers of news.

Online usage for older users is more likely to be ‘traditional’ in focus than younger users. However, it is important to note that, across various measures, there are three broad age groups where activity is largely similar – those aged under 35, those aged between 35 and 54, and those aged over 55. In other words, while for much activity 18–24s are at the vanguard, 25–34s are often not far behind.

There are differences by gender, particularly in relation to the types of news that men and women find important, and to the use made of different types of online news source. While men are more likely to share stories online, women are more likely to talk about them in person.

Different types of news resonate by socio-economic group, with local and regional news being more important to lower socio-economic groups, and political, business, and finance news being more important to higher socio-economic groups. Branded news sites are used more by higher socio-economic groups, and reading news online is more prevalent in these groups as well.

These findings are an important reminder that news consumption and habits remain sharply divided for various groups within society. While some of these differences may well become less stark in future years, others may endure – particularly around interest in news, and the continued preference for older users to navigate via news brand.