Lockdown impact: 38% of readers spend >1 hour reading newspapers: Survey

India’s renowned multi-disciplinary market research firm Avance Field & Brand Solution LLP, announced that a market survey conducted by it, indicated that Newspapers are truly an essential service and continues to be the most credible source of information. The findings of the survey provided some interesting insights into how the reader’s reading habits are evolving.

The survey was aimed at gauging the impact of the lockdown on ‘reading pattern’ and ‘timespent’ by public. The telephonic survey was conducted from April 13, 2020 to April 16, 2020 across 4 states in Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh.

Key findings from the survey are as below:

• Readers who spent more than 30 minutes in reading newspapers increased from 42% pre-lockdown to 72% and consequently the average time spent increased from 38 minutes pre lockdown to 60 minutes;
• Readers who spent more than an hour with their newspaper increased from 16% pre-lockdown to 38%;
• Readers who spent less than 15 minutes on their newspaper decreased from 14% pre-lockdown to 3%.
• 38 % people are reading newspaper for more than 1 hour.
• 42% people reading the newspaper reading multiple times.