Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Americans favor federal government subsidies to keep newspapers in business, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Forty-three percent (43%) say it’s better to let the papers go out of business, and 20% are not sure what to do.

Thirty-two percent (32%) of Americans believe some newspapers are too important to fail. Fifty percent (50%) reject this idea.

Fifty-one percent (51%) oppose a bill introduced in the U.S. Senate last week that would let newspapers become tax-exempt non-profit organizations as long as they don’t endorse political candidates. Thirty-three percent (33%) support the measure proposed by Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland.

But 53% agree with Cardin that losing the newspaper industry is “a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy,” while 31% disagree.

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Nearly two-thirds of Democrats (65%) and 50% of unaffiliated Americans think the failure of the U.S. newspaper industry is a national tragedy. Forty-one percent (41%) of Republicans feel the same way, but 45% don’t agree.

Half (51%) of Democrats support subsidies for newspapers, but 66% of Republicans think it’s better for the papers to fail. Adults not affiliated with either party are fairly evenly divided.

Adults ages 30 to 64 are far more inclined to let newspapers go out of business than are those older and younger than they are.

Early last month, 65% of Americans said they opposed a federal government bailout of the newspaper industry like the one given the financial sector.

Just 30% of Americans say they read a print version of their local newspaper every day or nearly every day, and under the age of 40, only half as many (15%) say the same. Only eight percent (8%) say they read the online version of their local newspaper every day or nearly every day.

The rise of the Internet, coupled with the ailing U.S. economy, has severely hurt the U.S. newspaper industry, causing a number of daily papers to go out of business. Most voters also were critical of bias in the coverage of last year’s presidential election. Most believe the media has portrayed the economy and global warming as worse than they really are, too.

A survey last year found that just 24% had a favorable opinion of the New York Times. Even General Motors managed to earn better reviews while seeking billions of bailout dollars.

Americans today believe that online news sources are as credible as local newspapers.

Americans also remain skeptical of all bailout proposals emerging from Washington.

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