Nielsen: Reading Online

"Print is having some issues at the moment, which may be like saying New Orleans took on some water. Insults fly, playground-style, about how long one published entity or another will be alive. Microsoft's CEO says no ink-on-paper newspapers or magazines by 2018; someone else says there'll be no Microsoft by then either. Newsweek will be gone in five years, predicts a columnist willing to bet dinner on it; I prefer steak, the magazine's editor shoots back.

A study released last week by the Internet research firm Nielsen Online revealed a part of the problem: People in the computer age are probably reading more than they ever have, so it's difficult to convince them to do more of it. It's the same 24-hour day that's always existed, recalling Mark Twain's quote about the wisdom of investing in land because they're not making any more of it.

People on average spend two hours a day, or more in many cases, reading online at work or home, according to the latest Nielsen study involving about 30,000 users.

Little wonder that they have less inclination, or time, to read apart from that. If my job required me to go to the gym for two hours a day, I'd probably have less need, and even less desire, to go before or after work."

Disconnecting Nielsen

"Today is the day. The nice folks from the Nielsen company are coming out to disconnect all their equipment. Now that our commitment is over I can tell you that we have been a Nielsen family for the last two years. This is the second time we have been a part of the Nielsen Ratings system and it’s kind of a hoot knowing that what you watch on tv influences the ratings at least somewhat. One of our technicians told us we represented 60,000 households. Wow, that’s alot of folks channel surfing.

"Even though we represented 60,000 households of viewers, Jericho was still canceled. Moonlight was still canceled. I’m not convinced my Nielsen vote helped at all there. But I watched faithfully and always made sure Devoted Spouse and I were both logged in on the remote."



"Nielsen, the fumbling audience measurement company notorious for snapping up the competition instead of building a better product for market, is doing the print industry a favor and promising not to get involved in measuring its audience. Even though its new “anywhere/anytime” initiative promised to be able to measure all media consumption, David Calhoun’s band of incompetents won’t be treading on FAS-FAX territory.

Not only that: Nielsen is looking to get out of print entirely."