There has been a huge growth in online news and a shift away from mass media towards social media. This has caused a crisis in professional journalism due to declining revenues and shifting audience attention. Younger audiences prefer short, concise news from blogs and social media rather than mainstream news sources. A study identified three types of online news users - convenience users who prefer short news, loyal users who remain with particular brands, and customizers who curate their own news sources. Facebook is a major source of news for younger Australians.

1. By Terry Flew, Christina Spurgeon, Anna Daniel
and Adam Swift

2. • Huge growth in online news and information
services.
• The 5 most popular Australian news sites were:
• News.com.au
• Ninemsn
• The Sydney Morning Herald
• The Age
• The ABC

3.  Shift away from mass communications and
movement towards networked social media
 A crisis in professional journalism caused by:
◦ Declining newspaper circulation numbers and
advertising revenues
◦ High levels of debt in commercial media business
◦ A shift in attention of media users
◦ A crisis of authority for professional journalism
◦ A growing public distrust of journalists

4.  Audiences are becoming increasingly fragmented
 According to John Hartley one way mass
communication is being replaced by two way
networked communication
 Younger media users refer to blogs and citizen
journalists for their news
 Mainstream news is of little interest to younger
media users

5.  Online media makes it easier to monitor and
track patterns of usage
 Researchers partnered up with Fairfax to conduct
an online survey to better understand younger
audiences
 Three broad but distinctive types of users:
◦ Convenience users
◦ Loyal users
◦ Customisers

6.  Arrive at sites through forward linking options
presented to them via social network sites or email
 Account for 60% of those surveyed
 Predominantly aged between 18-24 years
 Prefer news items that were short, concise and
“glossy”
 Most found mainstream news irrelevant to them
 Preferred news that suited their current interests

7.  Account for 31% of those surveyed
 This group is the most intentional of news users
 Often remain loyal to a particular news brand
 Most likely to read physical newspapers
 Normally aged over 24
 Value the quality and reputation of news
organisations
 Often do not interact with news items
 Most likely to pay for certain types of news

8.  Account for 9% of those surveyed
 Normally professionals aged over 24
 Highly active users of online news
 Not loyal to one news brand
 Value accuracy, reliability and timeliness
 Most critical of the news they perceive
 Actively blog, comment, link and re-publish news
 Only willing to pay for news in niche markets

9.  There is no single set of attitudes among young
people towards online news, or news generally
 The strategies of newspapers organisations need to
change to target each market
 Loyal users would be the best group for media
companies to target for further information as they
are the most likely to pay for online news
 The use of mobile devices for accessing news was low
 Reasons for this may be slow download speeds and
costly mobile data plans

10.  Online news is the preferred method of access for young
users. Reasons included:
◦ The speed of updating information
◦ Real-time live feed delivery
◦ Convenience
◦ Links to other news and information sites
◦ Ability to search across multiple sources
◦ Multimedia capabilities
 37% of respondents between 18-24 years nominated
Facebook as their favourite news and information website

11.  While the three groups presented are generalisations,
they help us to better understand the segmentation
of the online news and information market with
regard to young users in Australia
 As online news grows, increased pressures will arise
for new content to be tailored to particular
demographics
 This is a distinct change from 20th century mass
market/mass communication models

12.  Has online news brought an end to the mass market/mass
communication model of the 20th century?
 How important are young news consumers in relation to
media production and target audiences?
 Would you identify with or consider yourself a part of one
of the three distinct user groups identified by the study?
(Convenience users, loyal users or customisers).
 How much would you consider Facebook to be a news
website?