News

Adults are abandoning newspapers and getting their news online – we’ve known that for a while now. But they’re also pretty faithful to TV news too, according to the biennial media usage study by Pew Research Center.

Of respondents, the survey found 46 percent still rely heavily on TV for their news. Predictably, younger audiences prefer Internet news sites, and a group that Pew calls the “integrators” is turning to cable news outlets like CNN and Fox News for their fix.

“Integrators” are older, more affluent and at the heart of many advertisers’ wish lists for target audiences.

Pew found that only 34 percent of respondents read a newspaper “the day before,” compared to 40 percent when the survey was conducted two years ago.

What does this mean for traditional newspapers?  Sharp declines in ad revenue and slower growth.

For online sites, it means they are reaping what the papers used to sow in terms of ad revenue.

But it also shows that the shift in media habits is happening perhaps more slowly than we sometimes think.

Depending on your audience, you would do far worse than to run an ad on CNN or Fox News if you’re targeting middle-aged adults with disposable incomes.

It also demonstrates that, like most cultural shifts that happen because of a new technology, the rise of the Internet is going to take some time to really shake out…and that it may be a bumpy ride for those who aren’t ready for it and cling to their old ways.