As I’ve discovered, just when you think there is a trend in one direction, someone comes up with data to send it the other way – or least to temper the former claim.
Nick Carr has a good post on the subject, based on a recent Pew survey:
Rough Type: Nicholas Carr’s Blog: A reality check for online news.
As he says: "The upshot is that online news appears to be not a replacement for traditional media but a supplement to it. The report is not good news for newspapers, but it does show that the
reports of their imminent death have been exaggerated. The real
division is not between the audience for online news and the audience
for traditional news – they are the same audience. The real division is
between the people who are interested in the news and the people who
couldn’t care less. In fact, it looks very much like online news media
are now merging with traditional news media, as the two come together
in a symbiotic relationship to serve the same set of customers. They
are not competing with each other so much as they are competing
together against nonconsumption.