Nielson Book has released its second annual UK research project on understanding the children’s book consumer in the digital age. The research found:
- A significant fall in the number of children reading or being read to on a weekly basis
- An 8% drop in the number of books bought for 0 – 17 year olds
- The proportion of occasional and non-readers among children aged 0 – 17 rose from 20% in 2012 to 28%
- Children’s access to and use of tablets more than doubled over the previous year
- The proportion of children reading digitally has increased in some age groups. between 25-33% have done so overall
- A small but significant proportion of 14-17 year olds report that they now only read in digital format
- Only 20% of children using tablet devices used them for reading e-books, with 6% using them for reading magazines and comics
Jo Henry of Neilson concluded: “The challenge for publishers is to find fresh compelling content to compete with the activities (principally gaming and communication with their peers) that are increasingly now attracting the interest of children in these age bands.”
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