Millennials are more likely to read printed books than ebooks, according to new research by publishing services company, Publishing Technology.
The survey 'How Millennials Consume Content,' polled 2,000 consumers across the US and UK, aged between 18 and 34. It found that in the last year, nearly twice as many respondents had read a print book (71 per cent), than an ebook on any device – the closest being a tablet (37 percent). Showing no strong allegiance, young consumers also reported reading ebooks on dedicated ereaders (29 per cent), mobile phones (27 per cent) and personal computers (25 per cent).
The personal touch is still of vital importance for millennials who would rather acquire printed books from chain book shops (47 per cent) as opposed to online retailers (39 per cent). When purchasing ebooks, 51 percent of millennials would favour an ereading app with 40 percent acquiring ebooks directly from their ereading devices and 19 percent using subscription services.
When it comes to discovering and sharing books, although online communities and social media play an important role in millennials' lives, the research shows how essential offline communication is for this young demographic. Millennials mostly discover print and ebooks by word of mouth referrals (36 per cent), online browsing (26 per cent), and social media (24 per cent), while 23 per cent of those polled reported finding books browsing in brick-and-mortar book shops.
Millennial readers are not a generation of sharers. But they do recommend books and share opinions with their peers via word of mouth (40 per cent), social media (26 per cent), and online communities (16 per cent). This group could be persuaded to read more on electronic devices by price promotions (45 per cent), more ebook/print book bundling (26 per cent) and shorter content forms (10 per cent) or pay-per-chapter ebooks (9 per cent).
The survey How Millennials Consume Content was conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Publishing Technology. The full results can be accessed at www.publishingtechnology.com/research.
