One of the best aspects of blogs is when they provide a 'backstage pass' and in that regard Poynter.org is a great site for a news junkie. But the organization also does some interesting research, and a week or so ago they came out with this study about how people read news stories online.

While the study was on news stories, it does strongly suggest that despite rumors to the contrary, people will read long copy online - presumably assuming it is relevant and compelling.

When readers chose to read an online story, they usually read an average of 77% of the story, compared to 62% in broadsheets and 57% in tabloids…

In addition, nearly two-thirds of online readers read all of the text of a particular story once they began to read it, the survey revealed. In print, 68% of tabloid readers continued reading a specific story through the jump to another page, while 59% did so in broadsheet reading.

The research also found that 75% of print readers are methodical in their reading, which means they start reading a page at a particular story and work their way through each story. Just 25% of print readers are scanners, who scan the entire page first, then choose a story to read.

Online, however, about half of readers are methodical, while the other half scan, the report found. The survey also revealed that large headlines and fewer, large photos attracted more eyes than smaller images in print. But online, readers were drawn more to navigation bars and teasers.

Some good thoughts and readers comments over at GrokDotCom.