Poynter
EyeTrack07
A study of print and online
news reading

EyeTrack07 partners

Our readers:

Who was tested? 100 subjects at each location
49% Men
56% 18-41 years of age
51% Women
44% 42-65 years of age
The average age was 39 years

Who was tested? 100 subjects at each location
Some college 87%
GENERALLY READS PRINT OR
ONLINE EDITIONS OF THE PAPER
29% 1 - 3 times a week Employed 75%
71% 4 or more times a week

Poynter EyeTrack07
Major findings

How much was read?

Major finding: How much was read
1. In all formats — people chose what they wanted to read ...
and they read a lot. Even more than
we thought they would.

Major finding: How much was read
Most surprising: A much larger percentage of story text
was read online than in print.

Major finding: How much was read
On average, online readers read 77 percent
of what they chose to read.
Tabloid 57 percent
Broadsheet 62 percent
Online 77 percent
0 20 40 60 80

Major finding: How much was read
Nearly two-thirds of online readers, once they chose
a particular item to read, read ALL of the text.

Major finding: How much was read
Online
readers
read an
average
of 77% of
what they
chose to
read.

Major finding: Jumps
Jumps really were read.
P OY NT E R EY ET RA C K 0 7

Major finding: Jumps
Tabloid readers, on average, read a higher percentage of
jumped story text than broadsheet readers.
Broadsheet 59%
Tabloid 68%
P OY NT E R EY ET RA C K 0 7

What influences reading?

Reading style

Reading style:
Methodical
Scanning

Methodical readers tend to:
Read from top to
bottom, without
much scanning
Read in a full,
two-page view
in print
Re-read some
material
Use dropdown
menus and
navigation bars
to locate stories

Scanning readers tend to:
Scan pages,
headlines and
other display
elements without
much text reading
Read part of a
story, jump to
photographs or
other elements
without going
back to the same
place in the text
Look at story lists,
click on a story,
then read it

Major finding: Reading style
2. About 75 percent of print readers tended to be
methodical in their reading.

Major finding: Reading style
2. About 75 percent of print readers tended to be
methodical in their reading.
About half of the online readers were scanners, while the
other half were methodical in their behavior.

Major finding: Volume of reading by style
Online, there was very little difference in the amount of text
read between methodical readers and scanners.
METHODICAL SCANNER
Online (77%) 78% 77%
Broadsheet (62%) 65% 57%
Tabloid (57%) 66% 45%

Major finding: Volume of reading by style
Online, there was very little difference in the amount of text
read between methodical readers and scanners.
METHODICAL SCANNER
Online (77%) 78% 77%
Broadsheet (62%) 65% 57%
Tabloid (57%) 66% 45%

Major finding: Volume of reading by style
Online, there was very little difference in the amount of text
read between methodical readers and scanners.
METHODICAL SCANNER
Online (77%) 78% 77%
Broadsheet (62%) 65% 57%
Tabloid (57%) 66% 45%
In print, methodical readers read a higher percentage of text
than scanners.

Major finding: Volume of reading by style
Online, there was very little difference in the amount of text
read between methodical readers and scanners.
METHODICAL SCANNER
Online (77%) 78% 77%
Broadsheet (62%) 65% 57%
Tabloid (57%) 66% 45%
In print, methodical readers read a higher percentage of text
than scanners.

Major finding: Volume of reading by style
Online, there was very little difference in the amount of text
read between methodical readers and scanners.
METHODICAL SCANNER
Online (77%) 78% 77%
Broadsheet (62%) 65% 57%
Tabloid (57%) 66% 45%
In print, methodical readers read a higher percentage of text
than scanners. And this was comparable in broadsheet and
tabloid.

Major finding: Volume of reading by style
Online, there was very little difference in the amount of text
read between methodical readers and scanners.
METHODICAL SCANNER
Online (77%) 78% 77%
Broadsheet (62%) 65% 57%
Tabloid (57%) 66% 45%
Tabloid scanners read a considerably smaller
percentage of text.

Alternative story forms

Major finding: Alternative story forms
3. In our prototype test, we found that things like a Q&A, a
timeline, a fact box or a short list helped readers understand
and remember what they’d read.
Narrative Narrative + graphic No traditional narrative

Major finding: Alternative story forms
Subjects read one of six different versions of a story.
Each version included identical information — fact for fact,
but the design and story structure differed.
Narrative Narrative + graphic No traditional narrative

Major finding: Alternative story forms
Story forms, like a Q&A, a timeline, a fact box or a list –
drew a higher amount of visual attention, compared to
regular text in print.

Major finding: Alternative story forms
On average, we saw 15 percent more attention to what
we call alternative story forms than to regular text in print.

Major finding: Alternative story forms
On average, we saw 15 percent more attention to what
we call alternative story forms than to regular text in print.
This number rose to 30 percent in broadsheet format.

How are these
numbers figured?

What we mean by “above average”
When we say that an element drew more attention we mean it
attracted more “eye stops” than we might have expected.
TOTAL # OF %
AVAILABLE EYESTOPS SEEN
Large photos 20 10 50%
Small photos 100 20 20%

What we mean by “above average”
Here’s an example:
TOTAL # OF %
AVAILABLE EYESTOPS SEEN
Large photos 20 10 50%
Small photos 100 20 20%

What we mean by “above average”
Here’s an example:
TOTAL # OF %
AVAILABLE EYESTOPS SEEN
Large photos 20 10 50%
Small photos 100 20 20%

What we mean by “above average”
Here’s an example:
TOTAL # OF %
AVAILABLE EYESTOPS SEEN
Large photos 20 10 50%
Small photos 100 20 20%

What’s looked at first?

Major finding: Big is better for headlines, photos
4. In print, readers looked at large headlines and photos first —
and these got dramatically more attention than smaller
headlines and photos.

Major finding: Online, it’s directional devices
But online, readers go for navigation bars, teasers and other
things that we consider to be directional devices.

Photographs

Major finding: Photos
5. Color photos draw more attention in broadsheet.
Black and white photos receive 20 percent less attention than
you might expect, based on what is available to be seen.

Major finding: Photos
In print, live, documentary news photos got more attention
than staged photos. Studio or staged photos received much less
attention than we might expect.

Major finding: Photos
Mug shots got relatively little attention.

There’s much
more to come!
More results from EyeTrack07.
EyeTrack07 conference,
April 10-12 at Poynter.
The full report will be released
in June of this year.
Go to eyetrack.poynter.org
for more information.

Future studies:
We’re interested in working with you!
We have the equipment, the expertise
and lots of ideas.
Further analysis of the rich data set
we’ve gathered.
News broadcast design:
crawls, graphics, editing speed
News delivery on high definition, large
and small screens, telephones
Innovation in interactivity, search options