Five on Friday: Google Chrome, News Consumption and Textbooks

When you’ve had your fill of national politics or are done binge-watching your favorite show on Netflix, we’ve got some interesting features in this week’s Five on Friday, including millennial news consumption, a global browser rollout and streaming music revenue estimates. The Knight Foundation looks at the news behaviors and beliefs of young adults, Google Chrome rolls out its latest version globally, a new study shows that subscription service buyers buy more than expected, textbook publisher Pearson is pushing students toward digital books, and Digital Music News shares streaming music revenue estimates for the year. 

News Consumption Behavior of Millennials 

A new report by the Knight Foundation shatters the myth that young adults don’t care about the news. The Foundation surveyed 1,660 adults ages 18 to 34 and identified some very interesting trends. Here are highlights from the report: 

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  88% of 18- to 34-year-olds access the news at least weekly.

• 53% say they check the news daily.
• 97% of those with a great deal of confidence in the news, consumer it on a weekly basis.
• Young adults of all races are primarily digital news consumers, getting their news via social media, smartphone alerts or news websites.
• Hispanics and black young adults are more likely to share news with friends on social media.
• Young adults don’t believe their race or ethnicity is covered regularly in the media.
• Millennials believe even their favorite news sources have either a liberal or conservative slant.
• 57% of Democrats believe their favorite news sources are liberal; 36% of Republicans say their favorite news sources are conservative.
• Ethnic news media is a primary news source for young Hispanic and African American adults.
• More than 6 out of 10 young adults say they rely on their favorite source at least a moderate amount when deciding to support or oppose a policy.
• Close to 3 out of 10 say they rely on it quite a bit or a great deal.

For more highlights and the study’s methodology, read the full report here.

Google Chrome’s Newest Version Includes More Restrictive Ad Blocker

After limited testing in North America and Europe, Google rolled out its new Google Chrome browser in July. The latest version includes an ad-blocker that strips out ads that don’t meet Better Ad Standards, a set of web standards developed by the Coalition for Better Ads. Among the ads not making the cut are any ads that disrupt a reader’s online experience including pop-ups and auto-play video ads.  

Google said in its blog that it has stopped selling these types of ads themselves, reports What’s New in Publishing. Those annoying ads are automatically blocked in the newest version of Chrome, but there is a workaround. Users who don’t mind the ads can disable the ad-blocking feature.

Google recommends that publishers who want to improve the user experience for their readers can run their site through their Ad Experience Tool, part of the Google Search Console. The tool scans a publisher’s site – desktop and mobile – for ads that don’t meet Better Ad Standards. The report lists each of the violating ads and gives publishers the opportunity to replace them with user-friendly ads. Learn more about this tool in this video.