They Love the News--Just not the Newspaper

Preliminary results of a study, reports today's Washington Post, found more evidence that younger people are interested in news, just not the print version. The study found, for example, that 37 percent of adults who visited The Washington Post's Web site in the past 30 days were ages 18 to 34, while only 26 percent of the newspaper's print readers fall into the same age bracket.

According to NAA data culled from more than 100 newspapers in most major metropolitan markets, unique visitors to newspaper Web sites rose 21 percent from January to December last year. Younger demographic groups reading online editions helped local newspapers extend their reach beyond the print market by 14 percent among 25- to 34-year-olds and 9 percent among 18- to 24-year-olds, the NAA said in its report, released at its annual convention this week in Chicago.

"People who are not necessarily engaged with the print product are increasingly using the newspaper Web site for news and information in their local market," said Randy Bennett, senior vice president of audience and business development at the newspaper association. "Blogs, video and other multimedia content beyond what appears in the newspaper are all having an impact on usage of newspaper Web sites."