Contrary to a popular belief that Web surfers don't stick around on any one page too long, this Reuters article cites a recent study that concluded people have a greater attention span when reading news on the Internet, compared to other sources.

The study "found online readers read 77 percent of what they chose to read while broadsheet newspaper readers read an average of 62 percent, and tabloid readers about 57 percent," according to the article.

This probably won't have much effect on the belief that mobile Web surfers won't read entire articles on their cell phones (despite the fact that this author does all the time). But it does show that given the right source material, people will read for longer periods, regardless of the delivery mechanism.

Web News Readers Have Greater Attention Span: Study [Reuters via NYT]