Online media is the most popular medium from which senior executives obtain technology news, an annual technology market survey suggests.
The 2012 annual technology market survey conducted by Eurocom Worldwide, the Global PR Network, in association with Dublin-based Simpson Financial & Technology PR, reveals 78pc of respondents say they mainly get their technology news from online media.
Nearly half (42pc) of senior executives receive their technology news from social media, 40pc source tech news from industry print journals, and 37pc receive technology news from national newspapers. A third of survey respondents access tech news through search.
The survey also shows that almost 70pc of respondents read a print industry tech journal at least once a month and 40pc do so at least once a week.
“While online media is the main technology news channel, print media has held up remarkably well,” said Ronnie Simpson, Simpson FT PR.
With respect to how the senior executives access digital news, 83pc of the survey respondents do so through laptop computers, 61pc use mobile phones, and 27pc do so via traditional desktop computers.
Since last year’s survey, the percentage of respondents using tablet devices to read news has increased to 30pc from 16pc.
Tablets have overtaken desktops for the first time in the survey.
“Improvements in the tablet reading experience combined with their rapid growth could well encourage more users to subscribe for content. However, it remains to be seen whether publishing specifically to tablets will be a winner for the traditional print media,” said Simpson.
The Eurocom Worldwide technology confidence survey was conducted online by member agencies of Eurocom Worldwide during January and February 2012. A total of 318 responses were received with about 80pc from European countries and 11pc from the Americas.