Europe's business leaders turning to digital media but not at expense of print

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Europe's business leaders are increasingly using online and digital media to access news and information, but not at the expense of print titles, according to new research from Ipsos MORI.

According to this year's Business Elite Europe survey, which involved 8,245 senior business executives across 17 countries, 72 per cent now get their media online every month - a 63 per cent rise on 2008's survey figures. But 95 per cent of respondents still use print and 85 per cent TV on a daily basis for news and information.

Google News recorded the biggest monthly reach of international websites (30.3 per cent) amongst the respondents, followed by the BBC's website (22.7 per cent) and the Financial Times (15.4 per cent). Yahoo News (13.8 per cent) and CNN (9.6 per cent) make up the top five sites.

"For the Business Elite digital is a means of keeping informed at all times, especially while on the move. Almost half of this group (47 per cent) access online content via smartphones on a weekly basis," says James Torr, director at Ipsos MediaCT. "However, instead of replacing other media, digital supplements their use of print and television. Europe's business leaders require as much information from as many different sources as possible."

The Financial Times has the highest average issue readership amongst Europe's business elite, according to the research.

The FT's analysis of the research suggests that 69,554 of Europe's business elite read the FT on a daily basis. According to BE:Europe, 15.3 per cent of this industry group reads each issue of the FT on average. The Economist holds the next biggest average issue readership of a print title (13.3 per cent) amongst this sector, the research suggests.

Online readers of the FT have grown by 14,000 a month amongst the business elite - the highest growth rate of the titles surveyed, the FT suggests.

"While online readership growth is accelerating, print remains a core medium for the FT as demonstrated by the BE:Europe survey. By investing in our editorial operations, increasing our access to some of the world’s most powerful leaders, we can offer our readers global stories with expert local content," says Ben Hughes, the FT's global commercial director and deputy CEO, in a statement from the FT.

Bloomberg Businessweek, which is actively targetting European readers, grew its average issue readersip by 15 per cent year-on-year to 5.4 per cent of the business elite.

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