More time spent on Net than newspapers

US consumers will, for the first time, this year spend more of their day surfing the Internet than reading newspapers or going to the movies or listening to recorded music.

The findings are part of a new report from private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) that shows advertisers are paying close attention to the shift in consumer behavior and putting more money into areas like digital marketing.

According to a study in 2006 consumers spent the most time with TV, followed by radio, which together combined for nearly 70 percent of the time spent with media. That was followed by recorded music at 5.3 percent, newspapers at 5 percent, and the Internet at 5 percent.