A comparative analysis of student use of The New York Times print and digital formats

This study compares how students use newspapers across digital and print formats and examines reader preferences. Studies have shown that when using online versions of newspapers, readers were less likely to follow "media cues"---aspects of a newspaper such as story placement, headline size, story size, or photographs, which cue readers that a story is important. This study compared use and preference of three formats of the New York Times---the traditional print version, online, and a "reader" program called the New York Times Reader. The researcher found that while students were more likely to follow media cues using the print version of the New York Times than they were using the online version, they were more likely to follow these cues using the NYT Reader than the online version. Participants showed a strong preference for using digital formats and overwhelmingly rejected the print version of the New York Times in comparison. The NYT Reader was the format most preferred by users even though they claimed the navigational experience was more similar to using a print paper than when they used the online version. This suggests the tactile nature of ink on paper and the student's familiarity with computer interfaces are likely reasons the participants rejected the print paper but most preferred the digital format that replicated the print paper reading experience. Previous research that revealed the loss of control of gatekeepers in online formats should revisit the topic using different formats to attempt to determine what is most likely to attract readers to newspapers in their various formats.