October 31, 2013updated 01 Nov 2013 3:05pm

UK readers spend the most time reading newspapers compared to rest of Europe

The British are among the most enthusiastic newspaper readers of Europe, a new survey concludes.

The study, which is one of the largest ever conducted, shows that 70 percent of all UK readers spend more than 21 minutes on their newspaper and 30 percent even reads it for more than 41 minutes. In the runner up country Norway only 56 and 16 percent respectively do the same.

Also, 63 percent of all UK readers feel their newspaper is good value for money, which is far higher than the European average of 39 percent.

A big majority of readers in Britain, 79 percent, still read the print edition of their newspaper, followed by 20 percent laptop readers.

Only 27 percent of the British readers said they would be willing to pay for good information, whether that is in print or digital. A little more than half thinks that that digital information should be free.

The survey is conducted by the International News Media Association (INMA) and Research and Analysis of Media (RAM) in 14 different countries among almost 30,000 readers from 80 different newspapers. In the UK, eight newspapers participated and a little more than 3000 readers were interviewed.

Earl Wilkinson, CEO at INMA, said: “It is more important than ever for media companies to understand their readers. The purpose of the study is to provide media companies with an understanding of and insight into how their readers perceive newspapers, what they are willing to pay for, and on what platform they want to consume it.”