News is generally attractive to Austrians. According to the Reuters Digital News Report, about 63.6 per cent of the Austrian population are extremely or very interested in news. News interest shows some degree of variation across genders, with 67.8 per cent of men and 59.5 per cent of women extremely or very interested. It shows an increase with age, but more than half of those aged 18–24 consider themselves as being highly interested in news (Gadringer et al., 2019: 30ff.).
As interested as they are in news, Austrians showed they value traditional legacies in communication modes. No less than 81.7 per cent of the population collectively considered television (31%), printed newspapers (18.8%), or radio (11.9%) as their main source of news. Only 10.5 per cent reported social media as their main news source. Compared to all the other countries in the Reuters Digital News Report, Austria stood out as being loyal to news traditions on the whole. A closer look, however, indicates some generational gaps. 18–24-year-olds show a reverse picture: for 36 per cent, the main news source is social media, with online newspaper apps ranking second (13%) and television only third (10.6%).
These news preferences are also reflected in national data for the various news outlets. Over the last decade, considerable shifts in media consumption have been observed (see Table 2).
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Newspapers have lost reach in both absolute and relative terms. In 2009, some 75 per cent of the population were reading a daily newspaper. Ten years on, only 60.7 per cent appear to maintain that habit. This represents a reduction of about 750,000 readers. Interestingly, this decline in newspaper readership is not distributed evenly among various newspaper titles. While most of the quality newspapers have widened their reach, albeit marginally, the popular press has lost a considerable quantum of its readers. The market dominant Kronenzeitung reached 40.4 per cent of the population in 2009, close to its all-time high five years earlier (2005: 44.9%). Ten years later, Kronenzeitung is still the largest print newspaper in Austria, but 27.2 per cent was the lowest figure in its recent subscription history. The gap in numbers between the two years can partly be explained by the launch of the yellow-paper style daily free-sheet Heute in 2004 and its steady increase in reach. While stagnant in reach for its first decade, in 2019, Heute reached 12.2 per cent of the Austrian population. These trends unveil a polarisation among readers, with a strong element of boulevard press on the one hand, and a small but growing section of the population reaching out for quality newspapers, offline or online, on the other (Media Analyse, 2020).
Television has expanded its reach in the last decade, from 62.6 per cent to 66.4 per cent. This seems significant at first glance, but when taking all online streaming services into consideration, linear television has retained its audiences surprisingly well. Credit for this positive development goes to the market-dominating public service broadcaster ORF, which expanded its services from two channels in 2009 to four in 2019. These two main ORF channels are fundamental to its success with audiences and continued popularity in Austria, with a combined daily reach of 49.8 per cent in 2009 and 48.1 per cent in 2019. Private-commercial television has slowly expanded its reach and market share, but remains insignificant compared to ORF. The most popular private channel, ATV, reached a market share of some 3.5 per cent in 2019, compared to 28.9 per cent for ORF’s two main channels (AGTT, 2020).
Radio remains popular in Austria, with more than six million people listening on a regular basis in 2019. This represents a daily reach of about 77.3 per cent, dropping from 81.7 per cent over the last ten years. On average, people spent more than 200 minutes listening to radio every day, unchanged over this decade. Again, ORF radio channels lead the market (combined market share 2019: 74%; 2009: 77%), with private-commercial radio channels lagging behind (combined market share 2019: 25%, 2009: 21%) (RMS, 2020).
Finally, the Internet has significantly expanded over the past decade, reaching more people on a regular basis than any other media category. Approximately 6.2 million people use the Internet, nearly doubling from 3.3 million in 2009. Although statistically not clearly distinct from online newspapers, streaming television, and radio podcasts, nearly 83 per cent of the population use the Internet regularly. This is up from 64 per cent in 2009. Once again, Internet services provided by ORF are the most popular in Austria, followed by websites operated by most popular newspapers (AIM, 2020).
Overall, news media is widely used in Austria by all segments of society. However, a widening gap is appearing between those following serious news on quality channels, such as newspapers, television newscasts, and websites thereof, and those watching the news online, who prefer short-form news pieces or even just headlines, or soft news provided by free-sheets online and offline.
