A recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center, an independent opinion research group based in Washington DC, found that Americans are increasingly turning to the internet for their news, overtaking print media for the first time. In 2008 the percentage of those getting their news from the web jumped to 40% from 24%. Television still dominates as a news medium, but it follows newspapers in a slow decline. With the Tribune declaring bankruptcy under $13 billion in debt earlier this month it will be interesting to see how news sources adopt to this shift in viewership trends.
While this marks an important landmark in how consumers receive their information, it is a continuation of the obvious upward trend of web-based news. As the study notes, traditional newspapers are still the primary source of information, their websites are simply becoming the medium rather than their more profitable print formats. The Guardian reports:
Experts say that media economics is up in the air. Sree Sreenivasan, a new media professor at Columbia Journalism School in New York, said: “The problem is that advertising dollars from newspapers are being replaced by digital pennies.”
Younger people are migrating towards the web quickly. Among the under-29s, the web leaped from 34% to 59% as the leading source of news, tying with television, with newspapers lagging at 28%.
[via The Guardian]
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