Print or Digital? Reading Behavior and Preferences in Japan

In today's digital age, daily reading may be becoming digital reading. To understand this possible shift from reading print media to reading digital media, we investigated reading behavior for 11 media and reading preferences between print and digital in different circumstances. In August 2012, an online survey was used to inquire about the reading behavior and preference of 1,755 participants, ranging in age from 18 to 69 years. The participants contained equal numbers of men and women from five age brackets. Our main finding was that approximately 70% of total reading time was spent on digital media and that preferences favored print media. Cluster analysis of reading time by media was used to categorize respondents into eight clusters, and a second cluster analysis on stated preference (digital or print) yielded six clusters. The correspondence analysis between reading behavior clusters and preference clusters revealed that there is a mismatch between reading behavior and stated preference for either print or digital media.