Fewer Americans Reading Print News, But Confident There’s a Replacement
News that publisher Gannett is potentially being bought by hedge-fund-backed media group Digital First Media is just the latest sign that print news organizations are consolidating. Americans have more faith though that online and other news sources will be able to make up the difference.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 63% of American Adults rarely or never buy a print version of their local newspaper, up from 57% in May and from just 30% who said the same 10 years ago.
Thirty-six percent (36%), though, still buy their local newspaper, including 15% who do so every day or nearly every day. Another seven percent (7%) buy a copy several times a week, and 15% purchase a print newspaper once a week or less. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
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The national survey of 1,000 Adults nationwide was conducted January 20-21, 2018 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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