Finding and Consuming Content

At work I am part of a group that is focused on attracting a younger and casual news audience through careful page design and changing the way we present content. There has been a lot of talk on how young people and the casual news reader consume the news. I am certainly a casual news reader so I started thinking about how I consume news.

In a typical day I consume a lot of information. Throughout the day I scan blogs, Twitter feeds and occasionally jump into my RSS reader. This is mostly all design and technology related information and not what you would call traditional news. When it comes to world news I have a single top story widget on my iGoogle page from MSNBC and if a headline catches my eye I’ll check the story out. Every morning I get an email from the News & Observer showing me the top headlines for NC State and the Carolina Hurricanes. If a headline peaks my interest I’ll read the full story and then typically navigate away from the N&O. Sometimes I listen to podcasts throughout the day but the ones I subscribe to rarely contain any news in the traditional sense. While in the car as I travel to and from work I have local sports radio on. This totals to maybe 30 minutes a day but radio is full of commercials so I typically only get 10-15 minutes of real content and opinion. In the evening I religiously watch Pardon the Interruption. I am a big sports fan and the PTI format is great for getting a good mix of the day’s top stories. After PTI is finished I rarely if ever consume any more news for the day.

So lets summarize my typical day. I actively find specialized content that really interests me (design & tech news). I let information that I’m casually interested in become the background noise of my day (sports). I ignore everything else because I believe that if an item of news is truly important it will find me.

So now I pose the question to you… what is your typical day when it comes to information consumption? If you have a free minute write a comment below describing your typical day when it comes to news and information. Try to touch on the kind of content you encounter and the medium you use to engage with it. If the content is delivered to you then how? Would you consider yourself a light news reader or a news junkie? I’m hoping that responses will help me paint a better picture of how people consume news and this will hopefully lead me to better design.