Younger US consumers are reading the print versions of newspapers less and less, according to a comScore study conducted during the Summmer of 2007.
Old habits die hard. Respondents ages 65 and over were almost three times more likely than the average respondent to be heavy print newspaper readers. In contrast, those ages 18 to 24 were 38% more likely than average to not read a print newspaper at all during a typical week.
But those who didn't read a newspaper were not necessarily light consumers of news. Non-print newspaper readers were more likely than average to visit news Websites.
"That current generations are growing up getting their news online for free is an indicator that print circulations are likely to continue their decline," said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore.
"But the Internet represents a significant opportunity to extend and even improve upon existing news brands and reach out to new consumers with living, breathing real-time content. Just because print circulations are declining does not mean there are fewer news consumers. In fact, just the opposite is true."