News consumption in the United Kingdom rose by 20 percent in the past three years, according to new McKinsey research.1 Average consumption has risen to 72 minutes a day, compared with 60 minutes in 2006—an increase driven almost entirely by people under the age of 35 (Exhibit 1). Two-fifths of those in this age group said they felt the need to be the first to hear the news, compared with just 10 percent of people aged 55 to 64.
This need for immediacy is reflected in younger news consumers’ choice of media: they overwhelmingly prefer to get their news from television and the Internet (Exhibit 2). While television remains the most popular medium across all age groups, only the behavior of consumers 55 and older prevented the Internet from jumping from fourth in 2006 to become the second most popular news source today. Instead, the Internet is now in third place, just behind newspapers.