When asked if they had a chance to read a daily newspaper yesterday, just 31% of Americans say they read a newspaper, the lowest percentage in two decades of Pew Research Center polling. When online news consumers are later probed separately if they happened to read anything on a newspaper website, the total rises to 37%, but even this more inclusive measure of newspaper readership is on a downward trajectory. Four years ago 43% reported some kind of newspaper reading, in print or online. These percentages still may miss some people who access newspaper content indirectly through secondary online sources such as news aggregators or search engines.Though radio as news source has lost 37% of its audience since 1991 and television has dropped 15%, newspapers lost almost 45% of their direct news audience.
More bad news is that a big chunk of the fall off for newspapers came in just the last four years at a time when both TV and radio had a more or less stable news audience.
Daily audiences for TV and radio, by contrast, are holding steady. Television remains the most prevalent source of news; 58% of Americans say they watched the news or a news program on television yesterday, a percentage that has changed little over the past decade. About a third (34%) say they listened to news on the radio yesterday, which is little changed from recent years, but far lower than during the 1990s.H/T Michael Barone
ADDITION: One reason why Oregonian readership continues to decline.
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