Web readers read books less frequently

Internet users are more likely to cut back on reading books than
to curtail their magazine consumption, according to a recently
released survey by Jupiter Research.

The finding contradicts the long-held assumption that periodicals
are more vulnerable than books to competition from the Internet.

David Card, a senior analyst for Jupiter Research, said that
books and magazines suffered differently from online competition.
Internet users, he said, may read magazine content online, but
were less likely to give up buying hard copies entirely.

Not so for books: "The kind of information you can get online is a
lot like magazines," he said. "But the way people read books does
not migrate easily to the Web. With books, there's not channel shift;
there's substitution."