In general, CEOs and top executives are a news-hungry bunch that wakes up and turns to their phones or tablets for a morning dose of news, mainly before leaving home, or at least before arriving at work.
A survey of how executives get their news showed 75% spend 30 minutes to more than an hour on news each day with 44% starting when they wake up, 9% during their commute and 7% when they get to the office.
During the day, 30% of executives continue checking news sources. Only 1% focus on news during their evening commute.
These results are based on a survey by digital news organization Quartz which surveyed 940 global executives in more than a half-dozen industries during March of 2014, including 43% CEOs along with managing partners, vice presidents, board members and others.
In what could be bad news for traditional, non-digital sources, just 5% of executives get their initial gulp of news from print or television.
Six executives in 10 read an email newsletter and 43% tap the web through a browser or social app as one of their initial sources of news each day. A news app is also among the first three news sources for 28% of the executives.
The phone is their most popular way of accessing news at 44%. Thirty percent use a computer and 20% use a tablet.
The executives are willing to pay for newspapers and magazines, even if they don’t use them much. The survey showed 61% of the executives paid for subscriptions but only 3% use newspapers or magazines as their main source of news. That shrinks to 1% for those in finance, and inches up to 4% for executives in media and advertising.
Instead, 37% of the top bosses pay for digital news. The top reasons for picking the digital news sites were based on the brand’s reputation, exclusive information and quality of the journalism.
The email newsletter is the most popular source for executives unless they are looking for items specific to their industries. Then they tend to rely on email newsletters, industry news sites and general news sites about equally.
Also, 24% check social media accounts of industry news sites and company-produced content. Content generated by people in the industry is checked by 31% of the executives.
In addition to being determined news consumers, top executives like to share what they find. Ninety-one percent said they share work-related news items by email using either a desktop (48%) or a phone (31%). After email, Twitter is the most common platform for sharing news after email, followed by Facebook and LinkedIn at 30% each.
The executives also like branded content with 55% following brands inside their industry and 47% tracking brands outside their industry. For executives in media and advertising that jumps to 73% who follow their own industry’s brands and 64% follow brands outside their industry.
The bosses are most interested in industry analysis, 68%, followed by company products and innovations at 58% and insights into leadership at 43%. Only 23% find perspectives on social issues of greatest interest.
Advertisers wanting to reach the executives should rely on video and skip ads that take over the full screen.
The survey showed the last advertisement 54% of executives recall was a video, followed by 28% for sponsored content. Only 6% remember a full-screen ad as the last one they saw. Ads on computers had an edge as the device executives saw the last ad they recall at 58% compared to 42% on a mobile device.
And 50% say they do notice mobile ads, though only 27% of those executives interact with the ads on purpose.
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