Millennials Prefer News On Digital Platforms, Trail Older Demos

• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

Although digital news reach for millennials is higher than for older adults, their total news consumption -- from digital and TV sources -- is still much lower.

Digital news reaches 88% of millennials ages 21-37 in a month, according to Nielsen -- about 80% for adults 38 and older. But millennials consume way less news overall -- 146 hours of news a year from all digital and TV sources, with adults 38 and older tallying 502 hours.

This data comes from Nielsen’s Total Media Fusion report, which was published in December 2017.

One key factor here is millennials’ TV news reach total -- for broadcast and cable -- which is less than 61%, with older adults at 90%. Radio news has millennials trailing older adults as well, at 24% for millennials and 36% for adults 38 years and older.

Still, Nielsen says, when it comes to specific major news events, millennials' monthly reach numbers spike both for TV and digital news, such as with the 2016 presidential election and the presidential Inauguration in January 2017.

Also, according to a recent report from 2017, millennials' share of incremental out-of home TV viewing among all adults for news consumption provided nearly a 19% lift over a 7% share number when it comes national in-home viewing of news by millennials.

The entire report includes data from Nielsen’s first-quarter 2018 Nielsen Total Audience Report, Nielsen Media Impact, and Nielsen’s Audio National Regional Database, from fall 2017. It also includes a study from a Nielsen Media Lab online controlled exposure test.