The internet may be the interloper of media in terms of share of ad dollars, capturing but a fraction of what goes to television, radio and newspapers.

It's quite a different story when it comes to the web's share of consumers' attention.

Online users spend as much time surfing the web as they do watching TV, and they spend far more time at it than they spend with other media, says a new study from JupiterResearch. The internet, the study reveals, is becoming the most important medium for a large segment of the American public.

Since the rise of the internet, moreover, many Americans say they are spending less time reading magazines, newspapers and listening to the radio.

“The impact of online is bigger than we realized,” says Barry Parr, a San Francisco-based media analyst at JupiterResearch. “The internet is tremendously influential. It has the kind of influence that we would have attributed to TV in the past.” 

The report was based on a survey of just under 3,000 regular online users, defined as people who go online at least once a month from home, work or school. It found that on average online users are now spending about 14 hours a week surfing the internet, which is equal to the amount of time that they spend watching TV.

By comparison, on average each week they spend one hour reading magazines, two hours perusing newspapers and five hours tuning into the radio. In fact, they spend more time online than they do with all those other media combined.

What’s more, the report finds that even the most avid readers of newspapers and magazines clock less time reading these publications than they do online or watching TV. Intensive newspaper readers, defined as those in the top 20 percent of all newspaper readers in terms of time spent with the medium, spend on average eight hours per week reading papers. Intensive magazine readers spend five hours per week reading magazines.

By contrast, intensive online users spend 30 hours online, and intensive TV watchers spend about 35 hours a week watching the TV.

Interestingly, when looking at intensive users there is also a huge overlap between TV and online. Some 42 percent of intensive TV viewers are also intensive online users, and some 36 percent of intensive online users are heavy users of TV.

The smallest overlap is between the internet and newspapers. The study found that only 19 percent of those that are intensive online users are also intensive newspapers readers.

Researchers also asked those surveyed which media they were using less as a result of the increased time on the internet. Books were the big loser, with some 37 percent saying that they spend less time reading books.

In an interesting twist, Parr says that over the last year or so TV has actually seen a rise in time spent, but he says it's too early to say if it's a trend, as opposed to a blip, and further that over the longer term TV is not growing.