-By Lucia Moses

e-reader owners are big users of print media, presenting growth opportunities for publishers, says a new survey from L.E.K. Consulting.
 
The survey, L.E.K.’s second annual Hidden Opportunities in New Media, is due to be released Jan. 20.

One-tenth of survey respondents own an e-reader, and they’ve significantly increased their newspaper, book and magazine reading in the past year compared to non-e-reader owners, the survey showed.
 
What’s more, 36 percent of e-books read are incremental, suggesting that e-readers are driving additional book reading. e-reader owners were also found to be heavier consumers of movies, games and radio than avid Facebook and iPod users, spending almost twice as much time with those media as both of the other two groups.
 
For example, of heavy readers who own e-readers, 59 percent increased their newspaper consumption in the past year, versus 7 percent of non-e-reader owners. Affordability and access to better information were top reasons given for spending more time with print media.
 
The survey also found:
 
* Respondents are willing to pay cable providers for access to online video content, with up to 38 percent saying they would pay $19 on top of their cable bill to access cable content online or on their mobile phones.
 
* Multitasking while online is rampant, with one of three consumers watching TV and one in five listening to music while online.
 
* Internet radio is narrowly outpacing time spent on satellite radio in terms of time spent, with about one-third of respondents listening to 5.8 hours of Internet radio weekly.
 
For the online survey, L.E.K. polled 2,000-plus households in December 2009 on their changes in media consumption.