Internet more popular news source than newspapers
A new Pew Research poll shows that the Internet has now replaced newspapers as the most popular place for Americans to get their national and international news.
Forty percent of Americans, according to the Pew Research for the People and the Press, get most of their international and national news from the Internet. This is up from 24 percent in a similar poll taken in September of 2007. This is the first time that the Internet has been more popular than newspapers, which dropped to 35 percent in this most recent poll. Television news, however, is still the most popular source, and is cited as the place where 70 percent of Americans get their national and international news.
The new numbers are skewed even more towards the Internet among younger Americans. Within this group, which represents the future of the news business, 59 percent say that they get most of the national and international news from the Internet. Perhaps more importantly, the Internet is now tied with television among Americans younger than thirty. Among this group, only 28 percent cited newspapers as their most popular source of news.
Also among this younger group, the differences in news sources over time are nearly astounding. Among the sub-thirty age group, 68% cited television as their favorite in 2007, while only 59 percent did the same in 2008. This amounts to an 11 percent decrease. Part of that slack was taken up by newspapers, with this younger group citing use of newspapers as primary at a 23 percent level in 2008 but a 28 percent level in 2008, representing a 5 percent increase. In fact, the use of newspapers by this group has remained almost steady over the past three years, dropping only one percent between 2006 and 2008.
But the switch to the internet among American under 30 is the most dramatic change in news habits by far. In August of 2006, 32 percent of young Americans got their national and international news from the Internet. By September of 2007, this figure had grown just two points to 34 percent. However, in December of 2008, this statistic had risen to 59 percent, a full 25 percent growth.
The last few years have seen some venerable and important newspapers go through dire financial straits, most recently the Chicago Tribune. First, their readers had fled to television news. Now, the balance of their readers are moving very quickly to the Internet as a news source. This would be a very bad year to be a newspaper, especially a newspaper without an excellent Web site.
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