Business

For News, Business Leaders Still Prefer Email, Study Says

Email newsletters, that is. A new survey of almost 1,000 executives found that most are plucking their news out of their email inboxes every day, rather than using online news sites or apps. The study also revealed when business leaders are consuming news and how they’re sharing it.

Email continues to prove that it is not yesterday’s news. Not only is it an effective means of attracting new customers, it’s where business executives are turning for news.

The fact that [business executives] are willing to consume and share, that was a great validation that if we do provide interesting, relevant, useful content, even the most time-starved audience could use it.

According to a new Global Executives Study by the business-news site Quartz, two-thirds of business leaders reported that e-newsletters were one of the first three news sources they check daily. More than half also reported that email newsletters were primary sources for keeping up with news in their industries—though roughly the same number reported going directly to industry news and general news sites to stay up to date.

After newsletters, 43 percent of respondents get their news via the mobile web, 28 percent open a news app, and 16 percent visit a news site on their desktop.

Most of the surveyed executives spend about 30 minutes to an hour every day consuming news content. And a majority of executives like their news in the morning—slightly less than half catch up on headlines early in the a.m., upon waking up, and 30 percent check news periodically throughout the day.

Almost all, 91 percent, of executives share work-related news they find useful. Email ranks as the top platform for sharing (80 percent of respondents), followed by Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

“The fact that [business executives] are willing to consume and share, that was a great validation that if we do provide interesting, relevant, useful content, even the most time-starved audience could use it,” Quartz publisher Jay Lauftold Nieman Journalism Lab.

And there was good news for advertisers: 86 percent of executives reported they are interested in branded content. After video, branded content was the second-most memorable form of online advertising for survey respondents. Executives were most interested in industry analysis as a subject for branded content, followed by new products and innovations and leadership insights.

As an association executive, how and when do you prefer to consume news? Let us know in the comments.

(iStock/Thinkstock)

Katie Bascuas

By Katie Bascuas

Katie Bascuas is associate editor of Associations Now. MORE

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