FAR more Americans use the internet to get their news than a decade ago but the rate of online news audience growth is slowing, according to a new study.
Nearly one in three Americans regularly used the internet to get their news in 2006, compared to one in 50 in 1996, according to the Pew Research Centre for People and the Press. The most recent result was about the same as it was two years ago, Pew Research Centre Director Andrew Kohut said.
The growth rate in online news usage has been slower among younger readers. The percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds who get the news online at least three days a week rose only 1 percentage point to 30 per cent during the past six years.
The percentage growth among readers age 35 to 49 rose 12 per cent in the same time period.
On a wider level, the percentage of Americans who skipped the news on a single day has remained the same since the 1990s, the study said. "Nor are Americans spending any more time with the news than they did a decade ago when their news choices were much more limited."
"For young people in particular, getting the news often takes a back seat to other daily activities," said the study, which was based on telephone interviews with more than 3,200 US adults in April and May.
Forty per cent of those under age 30 said they watched a movie at home on video, DVD or pay-per-view yesterday, compared to 24 per cent who said they read a newspaper or went online for news.
The study highlighted one of the biggest problems facing the news businesses - keeping and growing their audience. Newspapers in particular have suffered declining circulation as people seek their news elsewhere, often for free on television and the internet.
Four in 10 Americans reported reading a newspaper "yesterday," down from 50 per cent a decade ago and down from 71 per cent reported by a Gallup survey in 1965, the Pew study said.
Newspaper publishers have embarked on public relations and educational campaigns to try to reverse the circulation decline. They have also been devoting more money and staff to their websites to chase readers and advertising dollars that many of their print editions are losing.
While that has succeeded to some degree, the study found, newspaper readership was falling. "Even the highest estimate of daily newspaper readership - 43 per cent for both print and online readers - is still well below the number reading a print newspaper on a typical day 10 years ago," the study said.
