2.11.2011 Media industry
Digital Press Reading Habits
Bartłomiej Dwornik
What time of day do we most often reach for e-newspapers and e-books? According to a study by Legimi, peak times are between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. It’s time to dismiss the notion that weekends are our favorite reading days.
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Summer shows a more evenly spread tendency to read digital publications throughout the day. However, evenings clearly dominate, especially late evenings, with a noticeably higher percentage of e-readers at the end of the day.
For Android devices, peak reading times during summer were at 2 p.m. (14% of respondents) and 9 p.m. (10%); iPad users read most around 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. (13% each), while iPhone e-book readers usually read at 9 p.m. (28%) and 1 p.m. (18%) - according to the study authors from Legimi. This indicates that smartphone users (both Android and iPhone) prefer reading during lunch and late in the evening.
Interestingly, according to analyses from the digital publications platform, e-reader owners are less predictable, reading at different times of day and night. 3% of respondents reported using their reader between 1 and 2 a.m., 5% at 9 a.m., 8% at 6 p.m., and 9% at 10 p.m. When combining results across all devices, peak reading times were in the late afternoon and evening (6 p.m. and 11 p.m. - 9% each).

One might think weekends are when we read the most. However, this isn’t true, as e-book and e-newspaper readers report otherwise. Summer weekends saw noticeably less reading than weekdays, with Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday standing out. - This may be because popular weeklies, also available in digital editions, are released on those days - suggest the study authors.
Outside of the vacation period, Android phone or smartphone users typically read at the beginning of the week (32% on Monday, 23% on Tuesday, and only 2% on Sunday).
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