1. ¹is Professor of Marketing in the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies at the University of Zaragoza. He holds a PhD in Business Administration and his research in strategic marketing and retailing has been published in academic journals such as the European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of Strategic Marketing, International Journal of Bank, Marketing, and different books such as 'The Current State of Business Disciplines, Building Society Through e-Commerce or Contemporary Problems of International Economy'. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, the Industrial Marketing Management and the Journal of Marketing Communications.
2. ²is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies at the University of Zaragoza. Her main research lines are online consumer behaviour and the analysis of the advantages and limitations of the internet in the development of economic activity. Her work has been published in several journals, such as Information & Management and Internet Research, and has been presented at national and international conferences such as the Marketing Science Conference, the International Conference on Recent Advances in Retailing and Services Science, and the European Marketing Academy Conference.

Correspondence: Carlos Flavián, Department of Economy and Business Studies, C/Gran Via, no° 2, 50005, Zaragoza, Spain Tel: +34 9767 62719 Fax: +34 9767 61767, Email: cflavian@unizar.es

Received 21 July 2006.

Abstract

The development of the internet in recent years is affecting journalism, which is becoming increasingly important on the web. This paper analyses the duality of news media from the demand perspective, identifying the main reasons that draw readers to the media and analysing the influence of such reasons on the decision to read online newspapers rather than traditional print media. The results confirm that the channels could be complementary, if sufficiently differentiated, and may be associated with different motivations and use situations.