A new Harris poll, reported this week in Media Daily News, shows consumers prefer TV as their source of news and information.
The Harris poll says 50 percent of us prefer TV for news. Online news sources are the prefered vehicle for 36 percent, and only ten percent say print is their first choice for news.
The fact that print gets only ten percent is discouraging, although it should hardly be a surprise as more people go digital and use mobile devices. It really is becoming a "news whenever and wherever I want it" world. We know how newspapers and magazines are struggling to stay alive and relevant by putting content online, even as they try to figure how to get paid for it by subscription and/or advertising.
Also interesting from the poll is the demographics of who is interested in news. Men, it says, are twice as likely to be interested in news than women -- 17 percent vs. 9 percent. While the gender gap is suprising, what troubles me is that only 17 percent of those polled say they have a "serious" interest in the news.
The poll also shows that news consumption is more a habit of older consumers. Thirty-one percent of millenials -- the 18 - 35 age group -- say they are not interested in news. (Are they too busy keeping up with all the personal trivia on Facebook?) Among the Gen-x group (36 - 47), 23 percent say they have no interest in the news. Only ten percent of boomers (48 - 66) have little interest in news, and six percent of those over age 67 say they are not interested in the news.
Now that is really scary and depressing, to see that such a high percentage of young people have little interest in what's happening in the world around them. It does not bode well for the news business, but also for us as a nation in general.
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The statistics about young people's lack of interest in the news is scary, like you say.
Posted by: Shelly P | September 28, 2012 at 07:33 AM