Survey: Internet news sources more popular than print

by Stevie Smith - Dec 29 2008, 13:25

According to new figures issued by the Pew Research Center, 2008 saw news seekers across the United States shifting their weight of reader allegiance to Internet sources at the cost of traditional print-based publications.

Washington-based Pew Research discovered that consumers utilising the Net as their main point of contact with news outlets rose dramatically from 24 percent to 40 percent over the last 12 months.

By way of comparison, 35 percent of news seekers in 2008 regularly looked to print newspapers, while those choosing to use ever-dominant television broadcasters dropped marginally from 74 percent to 70 percent, reports The Guardian.

Notably, online news popularity amongst younger Web surfers surged from 34 percent to 59 percent for those aged below 29, which matched the figure attributed to television and surpassed the 28 percent amassed by print publications.

Evidence of the continuing decline of print news comes after the Audit Bureau of Circulations revealed that sales of papers in the six months through to September of 2008 dropped by some 4.6 percent.

Negative market effects attached to the current economic climate have already seen U.S. print publishing titan Tribune filing for bankruptcy during December as it buckled beneath the weight of $13 billion USD of debt.

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