Online News Overtakes Newspapers, Study Finds

People are spending more time with news than ever before, with online consumption the exception to the rule among all media, according the Pew Research Center. In 2010, digital was the only media sector seeing audience growth. And cable news joined the ranks of older media suffering audience decline.

In December 2010, 41 percent of Americans cited the internet as the place where they got “most of their news about national and international issues,” up 17 percent from a year earlier. When it came to any kind of news, 46 percent of people now say they get news online at least three times a week, surpassing newspapers (40 percent) for the first time.

Only local TV news is a more popular platform in America now (50 percent). The new wild card in digital is mobile. Also, about 47 percent of Americans now say they get some kind of local news on mobile devices such as cellphones or other wireless devices such as iPads.

Key Findings | State of the Media