News Article Consumption Habits of Greek Internet Users

Abstract

The concept of different news consumption habits during a day has been well known for many decades in the broadcasting industry. News websites are also experiencing a drop in late afternoon traffic and a sharp drop in the evening hours. Furthermore, during the weekend, website traffic numbers appeared to be significantly different than the numbers during the weekdays. That resulted in the adoption of the concept of dayparting in the case of the internet. The existence of internet dayparts can have a significant impact on news websites since they can significantly determine their success. It is quite natural to assume that media organizations have adopted their publishing patterns to best satisfy the audience’s consumption patterns. This paper investigates those consumption patterns by conducting an extensive web survey among university students and particularly journalism and communication students that are expected to exhibit high consumption rates. The parameters being investigated include time, weekdays and weekends, and content categories. The study identified distinct periods that exhibit specific consumption patterns. The results appear to be to some degree in agreement with findings of previous studies that reported on publishing patterns, but significant differences have also been identified. Those results can provide valuable information for the implementation of successful content publishing strategies from the media organizations.