Twitter and newspaper sites

I was reading recently that The Guardian online retains its place as the most visited UK newspaper site. I must say that this is the site I tend to go and link to if I'm looking for general news and current affairs; much more so than The Times. However, I probably glean most of my news from Yahoo! or the BBC site.

Online reading of newspapers is so different isn't it. It really is a case of dipping in and out, whereas when you buy a paper you tend to read it from beginning to end - or at least sections of it. I remember going to a seminar years ago when someone said that the difference between newspapers and magazines (offline) was that you skimmed a newspaper or went to a specific section seeking something in particular such as the football results, whereas with magazines they were more of a luxury buy and it was finding what you didn't expect to read that was the big difference.

With the web, I do find that it's partly both - I go to specific sites for answers or updates but then linking takes me to items I knew nothing about, so it successfully marries the two. I rarely buy the Guardian offline any more and am only getting The Times from our Tesco delivery this morning as something of a treat. Maybe my whole reading behaviour for current affairs has been transformed by the medium rather than differences between newspaper brands or product differences?

I also saw this story where it is suggested that Twitter (which I increasingly use) attracts more traffic than any single UK newspaper site, though it also drives an increasing amount of traffic to them. Short-form for now but will I go back to long-form when time is more readily available? I'm not sure that I will.