Open Access
Time Spent Reading
NRS data on Time Spent Reading can be viewed in summary on this website. These data are for the period January-December 2007; more recent data are available to NRS subscribers. The results overall show that people spend a considerable amount of time with the newspapers and magazines they read.
- Of the 250 or so magazines measured by NRS, each title is read on average for a total of 50 minutes
- 61% of readers of the average magazine spend 30 minutes or more reading it, with 34% spending an hour or more
- A weekday (Monday-Friday) issue of a daily newspaper is read for an average of 40 minutes
- The average Saturday newspaper is read for an average of 57 minutes, with 42% of readers spending an hour or more
- The average Sunday newspaper is read for an average of 61 minutes, with 50% spending an hour or more
Source: NRS Jan-Dec 2007
Source: NRS Jan-Dec 2007
There are large variations in Time Spent Reading for different types of publication. Click on the link at the top of the page to see the data for individual titles and publication groups.
The Time Spent Reading question is asked of all titles for which respondents have made an average issue readership claim (e.g. read a daily newspaper yesterday, a weekly magazine in the past 7 days etc.). Respondents are shown a 7-point scale, and for each title they have read they are asked how long they usually spend reading that title by the time they have finished with it, including all the different parts and sections that it may have:
Less than 5 minutes
About 5 minutes
About 15 minutes
About 30 minutes
About 1 hour
About 2 hours
About 3 hours or longer
This enables NRS users to look at a Time Spent Reading profile for a title or group of titles. The average Time Spent Reading has also been calculated for each title covered by the Survey.