A survey by Ofcom suggests that the internet and apps are now as important a source of news in the UK as newspapers.
The regulator's News Consumption in the UK report found that 41 per cent of Britons say they use the internet and apps for news (up from 32 per cent in the same report a year ago) compared with 40 per cent (the same as a year ago) who said they use newspapers.
The report is based on a face to face survey conducted by Kantar Media in March/April 2014 involving 2,731 respondents across the UK.
It found that some 95 per cent of UK adults say they follow the news. TV is the most popular source of news, with 75 per cent of respondents saying they use it (down from 78 per cent in 2013).
Some 36 per cent said they use the radio for news (35 per cent last year).
Looking at local news, Ofcom reports that 77 per cent of adults say they use TV for this purpose at least once a week, 49 and 50 per cent respectively said they use newspapers and radio and 39 per cent said they use online sources.
Ofcom found the rise in digital news is driven by increased mobile and tablet use among younger people, who are 10 times more likely than those aged 55 and over to access news on a mobile (40 per cent versus 4 per cent) and twice as likely on a tablet (15 per cent versus 7 per cent).
The regulator said this could explain why more 16 to 24-year-olds said they caught up on news to pass the time (17 per cent versus 9 per cent for over 55s), as mobiles and tablets allowed them to surf the web and apps on the move.
But despite younger people having easier access to news on apps and the web, one in 10 said they do not follow the news compared with 5 per cent across all adults and just 3 per cent for the over 55s.
Ofcom's News Consumption in the UK report for 2014
Infographic from Ofcom:
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