If it's in the News, it's in our Polls. Public opinion polling since 2003.

LIFESTYLE

Just 27% Regularly Buy Print Version of Newspapers

Despite living in the digital age, a majority of Americans still prefer reading a hard copy of their daily news than poring over a computer screen. However, that preference doesn’t translate to their behavior.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 65% of American Adults prefer the experience of reading a printed version of the newspaper rather than an online version. Twenty-eight percent (28%) prefer to do their reading online. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

However, nearly half (48%) say they rarely or never buy the print version of their local newspaper. Twenty-seven percent (27%), though, say they buy it every day or nearly every day. Adults over 40 are also almost twice as likely as adults under 40 to regularly buy a print version of their local newspaper.

These figures are little changed from a year ago.  Separate polling finds that 85% of adults also still own a print version of the dictionary. 

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The national survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on May 12-13, 2011 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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Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.

We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.

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