A study of diffusion and acceptance of an electronic newspaper: the case of an Ehime newspaper

Abstract

The diffusion of portable network devices such as the iPad and tablet PCs, in addition to especially designed reading devices like Kindle, is transforming people’s behaviour with printed media such as newspapers. Newspapers in electronic forms have been in the market for a long time but have had difficulties finding a feasible business model. The diffusion of reading devices other than traditional PCs seems to open a new horizon for this application. However, even though these new technologies are becoming increasingly widespread, their diffusion does not necessarily guarantee success. This study investigates the case of Ehime Newspaper, a rural local newspaper company, which prints about 300,000 morning papers and recently is running a pilot system of PC based electronic newspaper involving only university students and staff. This study presents findings from a survey of pilot users and analysis of reading behaviours from access logs and diaries. This case of an electronic newspaper is consistent with TAM, however there are differences between the electronic newspaper and the more traditional text-based or multimedia based presentation of news. This study also investigates whether personality traits would affect the adoption of electronic newspapers.