SINGAPORE — More Singaporeans are going online to read the news, amid overall falling readership of Singapore newspapers that continue to publish a hard copy.

The trend was especially strong among younger Singaporeans, with Gen Y consumers (aged 25 to 39) the most likely to go online for news. More than three in four respondents (76.8 per cent) in that age bracket said they had done so over the previous month.

These were among the findings of the latest annual Nielsen survey on media consumption habits which was released on Wednesday (Nov 13).

The 2019 Nielsen Consumer & Media View Study surveyed 4,688 people in Singapore aged 15 and over between July 2018 and June this year. The results are weighted mainly by age, sex and race to be representative of the Singapore population.

Overall, it found that the combined readership (hard copy and digital) of Singapore newspapers fell to 47.2 per cent this year, down from 51.4 per cent last year.

Compared to last year, The Straits Times lost 110,000 readers as its average daily reach dropped 2.9 percentage points to 26.9 per cent this year. Its daily readership stands at about 1.16 million, declining from about 1.27 million.

The New Paper saw its daily readership fall by 55,000 to 180,000, while the Business Times’ readership declined from 93,000 to 79,000.

Lianhe Zaobao and Tamil Murasu were the only ones to buck the declining trend, as both saw their readership increase marginally by 0.1 percentage point. Lianhe Zaobao currently has a daily readership of 419,000 while Tamil Murasu has a daily readership of 41,000.

TODAY was not included in the survey as it ceased its print edition in October 2017 and became a fully-digital product. 

The digital reach of local newspapers stands at one in five adults (21.3 per cent) on an average daily basis. Nielsen did not provide a breakdown of hard copy readership and online readership of Singapore newspapers.

In a media release, Nielsen said the proportion of Gen Z consumers (aged 15 to 24) accessing online news also grew the most, compared with other age groups, with 70.4 per cent viewing online news content in an average month up from 62.4 per cent in last year’s report.

Overall, 59.4 per cent of respondents had gone online to access news in the previous month, compared to 54.3 per cent in 2018. It is the second most popular media-related Internet activity in Singapore.

The most popular activity is watching television, movies or video online, with 84.3 per cent of respondents having done so in the previous month, according to the survey.