In April 2007, the Poynter Institute released the findings of its 2007 EyeTrack study on reader behavior.Poynter's Media Business Analyst, Rick Edmonds, writes:
You can't get much more basic than the lead finding of Poynter's EyeTrack07 study, presented this morning to the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington, D.C.
Readers select stories of particular interest and then read them thoroughly.
And there's a twist: The reading-deep phenomenon is even stronger online than in print.
At a time when readers are assumed to have short attention spans, especially those who read online, this qualifies as news.
That was the predominant behavior of roughly 600 test subjects -- 70 percent of whom said they read the news in print or online four times a week. Their eye movements were tracked in 15-minute reading sessions of broadsheet, tabloid and online publications. Evidence from these sessions revealed how long readers spend with the stories they pick, as well as a host of other details about reading patterns...
Click here to read Edmonds article on the EyeTrack07 findings in its entirety on the Poynter Institute website. Edmonds' article contains links to videos, slides, and a brochure outlining the study's findings.
