Online media remains the most popular way for senior executives to source technology industry news according to the 2012 annual technology market survey conducted by Eurocom Worldwide, a global PR network, in association with Reading-based member firm Six Degrees. More than three-quarters (78 percent) of respondents say that they mainly get their technology news fix from online media, ahead of social media (42 percent).

However, the third most popular source for accessing tech news is industry print journals (40 percent), while 37 percent get technology news from national newspapers. A third access tech news through search.

“While online media is the main technology news channel, print media has held up remarkably well,” says Jennifer Janson, managing director, Six Degrees. The Eurocom Worldwide survey finds that almost 70 percent of respondents read a print industry tech journal at least once a month and 40 percent do so at least once a week.

“The challenge for online media, whether technology or general media, remains to turn all those eyeballs into revenue and profit,” adds Mads Christensen, network director at Eurocom Worldwide. “Anecdotal evidence from our member agencies around the world suggests that journalists in both online and print are having to work harder and produce more with fewer resources.”

An overwhelming majority (83 percent) of survey respondents access digital news through laptop computers and 61 percent access news through mobile phones, compared to 27 percent using traditional desktop computers. Since last year’s survey there has been almost a doubling (from 16 percent last year to 30 percent) of those using tablet devices such as an iPad to read news.

“Improvements in the tablet reading experience combined with their rapid growth could well encourage more users to subscribe for content<’ says Janson. “However, it remains to be seen whether publishing specifically to tablets will be a winner for the traditional print media.”