Consumers manage multiple media.

What else are you doing right now? Are you eating? Listening to the radio? Is there a TV on in the room?

Like most media, the Internet is being multitasked more than ever. Multitasking is almost a survival tactic for consumers, who seem to be faced with more media choices every year. For marketers, it doesn't seem to be great news. It is harder to rely on consumers' undivided attention.

The data are clear. Regular simultaneous media consumption for online, newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and direct mail is up from 1% to 35%, depending on the medium, according to BIGresearch's "Simultaneous Media Survey."

For marketers, the flip side of multitasking is that the use of one media type does not necessarily preclude the use of another. More than two out of 10 radio listeners surveyed in December 2007, for instance, went online while the radio was on.

Three out of 10 newspaper readers surveyed watched TV at the same time, and more than 10% were Web surfing while reading the news.

Read more - eMarketer