Online Media: Why Time Spent on Internet Is Leveling Off - Advertising Age - Digital

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The Web Is Flat: Why Time Spent Online Is Leveling Off

Forrester Survey Says Use of Internet Media Stayed Steady at 12 Hours a Week

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Time spent with the internet, as it turns out, doesn't balloon indefinitely.

That might sound obvious, but this is the year web surfing leveled off at 12 hours a week after growing from less than six hours a week in 2004, according to Forrester's annual survey of more than 40,000 American consumers' self-reported media habits. The report, released Monday, also indicates relative stabilization in other media channels, most notably newspaper and magazine reading.

While there are myriad reasons why people's time spent with internet media stayed flat over the past year -- chief among them is faster broadband speeds and more experience with the web allows people to be more efficient consumers -- the trend has implications for media companies and marketers. Ad Age interviewed Forrester Analyst Jackie Rousseau-Anderson via e-mail to understand more about why we're seeing the stagnation and its implications for media.

Ad Age: You observe that despite more households having broadband access, media behaviors remained relatively flat year over year -- with time spent with the internet static at 12 hours a week. This comes after years of relatively interesting media shifts. What do you make of the "flattening" in web use?

Jackie Rousseau-Anderson: Originally the internet was a great "unknown." We saw marked increases in the time spent online as people began to try out this new medium and become acquainted with it. The amount of time people were dedicating to the internet grew significantly because it took people time to sit down and figure out how to use it and where they should be going. These were the days of "hard-core surfing"; people just ...

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