Only five years ago, bookmarking and direct-to-homepage visits were by far the most popular means by which readers accessed newspaper and magazine Web sites. Now social media and search are the predominant access points for these sites.

However, users in each country drive regional trends.

In Europe in particular, access to traditional media still rules, followed by social media access for news and, to a lesser degree, pure-play offerings like Google News and MSN News. Meanwhile, social media-accessed news dominates in Japan and, to a lesser degree, Brazil and Italy, according to the 2014 edition of Reuters Institute’s annual digital study.

It follows that Brazil and Italy are among the most prolific content sharers via e-mail or social networks, with 54% of Brazilians and 44% of Italians sharing content via social networks or e-mail every week.

Other countries where users are also prolific sharers are Spain (40%), the United States (35%), Finland (24%), Denmark (23%), and France (21%).

Social media users share actions like links, posts, and comments with friends, colleagues, and family members on the social platforms that resonate with them.

Facebook commanded an 82% share of all articles shared, according to Buzzsumo and Fractl’s 2014 report, “Which Publishers are Winning in Social Engagement.” The report studied 2.6 billion shares of one million articles from 90 global publishers on five social platforms in the first half of 2014.

Other social networks trailed behind significantly, with Twitter driving 8.6% of shares, Google+ with 4.3%, Pinterest with 3%, and LinkedIn with 2.2%.

For more information, or to download the executive summary of the 2015 Global Digital Media Trendbook, go to http://www.wnmn.org.

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