This story about a recent Gallup poll leaves nearly as many questions unanswered as it addresses, but the there's good news here for newspapers. Highlights include the fact that people cite newspapers as their primary daily news source over the internet by 2-to-1 (44% versus 22%). In addition, another 13% use newspapers at least "several times a week," pushing steady useage up to 57%. I was also glad to note that after recent declines in newspaper use, it's been steady at 44% for a couple of years now.
A taste:
Despite all of the publicity about people fleeing to the Web for their daily news diet, the Gallup survey found that twice as many still rely on newspapers: 44% daily vs. 22% daily for Internet use.
"The rapid growth in the Internet news audience may have slowed in the last two years, and cable news viewership has declined," Gallup reports.
I think it's quite likely that our thinking is behind readers in some senses and ahead of them in others. Aren't we looking at fragmentation versus mass transfer? The challenge I ponder every day is how to serve multiple audiences with our coverage.
ReplyDeleteAn example is the TV book, which has taken severe cuts everywhere. If you've looked at TV Guide lately, you know it has changed from listings to stories, for the most part. This leaves us the only print source of local listings, which a stalwart group of people use (and not just old people).