Why people choose a news source over another

Consultancy McKinsey just published an interesting analysis on their McKinsey Quarterly on "What consumers want from online news", by two of their NY-based experts, Andre Dua and Liz Hilton Segel. (Abstract here, you have to sign up to see the full report). The data refer to the US.

They found for example that audiences are fragmenting like confettis. Nothing new, except this: a full half of their respondents (2100 people interviewed total) spread their weekly news time among 14 to 16 different news brands. 6 or 7 of these sources are television channels; five are websites; the rest is magazines (1 or 2), newspapers (1) and a radio station.

But this is more interesting -- mandatory food for thought for all journalists, publishers and broadcasters: they found that a vast majority of people base their choice of news sources not on quality but on convenience, comprehensiveness, or timeliness: