Print Readership Still Enduring Steady Decline Due to Dominance of Web News
Print this Article | Send to Colleague
Media Post (New York, N.Y., USA) reported this past week (Dec. 4, 2018) that The Pew Research Center released the results of a survey that signaled more hardship for print publishers. Some 76% of respondents between the ages of 18 and 49 who read the news — rather than watch or listen to it — prefer to find that news online. Of those 50 and older, 43% preferred the web as opposed to print.
In addition, three times as many 18- to-49-year olds who watch and listen to the news preferred to gather that form of news online too, rather than those over 50.
The study marked a healthy uptick in readers turning to the web for news since 2016. Just two years ago, 49% of respondents over 50 who preferred to read the news preferred printed paper, while 32% preferred to go online. Study reveals that 47% of Americans prefer to watch the news as opposed to other forms overall — a number that has held steady since 2016. There are also a growing number of consumers who rely more than ever on the web.
The study was conducted from July 30 to Aug. 12 of this year and polled 3,425 members of Center’s nationally representative American Trends Panel.
