Print struggles on

For those of us who spend most of our time on the web (and therefore must wade through positive material and outright propaganda), these latest figures give food for thought:

A new Gallup poll released today reveals a halt in the steady decline of Americans who rely on newspapers for most of their news gathering, with local TV news still holding at #1.

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.

An additional 13% say they rely on newspapers “several times a week,” meaning 57% use the papers a lot.

Behind local news and newspapers come the network news at 35% daily and cable news at 34%, and public television at 28%. Radio talk shows fall far behind at 20%.

Daily newspaper use had stood at 47% in 2002, falling off to 44% in 2004 – but showing no further declines since.… 

None of this means that online journalism isn’t seriously eroding the legitimacy (and viability) of print media, but it’s easy to forget that serious reporting requires long-term investment. Blogging is no substitute for that.

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

Site by Common