Last month, I shared recent research about local journalism, specifically how more Americans are consuming it digitally on news sites and social media than on television and print media.
And while that news isn’t necessarily rosy for those committed to print on its own, it is promising for those incorporating digital … particularly with the latest forecasts from PQ Media regarding media consumption.
(Source: PQ Media)
Worldwide, total media usage rose 0.3% to 56.15 hours per week, according to PQ Media’s annual Global Consumer Media Usage Forecast. And though that weekly time dropped 0.4% to 76.69 hours in the United States, the forecast shows expansion moving forward.
“Media consumption … will post accelerated growth in 2024 with general elections in the United States, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, India and South Africa, as well as the Summer Olympics in Paris, that will drive media usage rates in most of Western Europe that are in the same time zone or within an hour,” says Patrick Quinn, PQ Media CEO, in the report’s press release. “In 2026, we’ll see this same phenomenon in the Americas when the United States, Mexico and Canada tri-host the FIFA World Cup and, again, in 2028 when the Summer Olympics are held in Los Angeles.”
Of the total consumer time spent with media, 53.3% was with ad-supported media globally, with the U.S. market being one of 11 where that percentage was more than half.
As MediaPost’s Joe Mandese says about the global marketplace findings, “ad-supported media will continue to have the dominant share through 2028, but it also is on a trajectory to tip sometime shortly after that.”
In breaking down media usage by generation, PQ Media’s research pointed to the “Great Generation” (those born before 1945) as one reason overall digital media usage was under 40%. As the “heaviest media users worldwide,” their 86.51 weekly hours — only 27.4% of which is with digital media — likely skewed those numbers.
“With the rapid shift to digital media usage, 2022 will be the last year in which traditional media will ever post positive growth,” Quinn says.
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