By: Will Lester, Associated Press Writer (AP) The audience for the evening news on broadcast TV networks stabilized after years of decline, at least partially because Sept. 11 heightened news interest, but newspaper readership continues to slide, a new poll suggests.
Viewership for network news stopped its decline from two years ago, but the number of people who said they had read a newspaper the previous day dropped to 41% from 47% in 2000, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reported Sunday. That is down from six in 10 in 1994.
Use of Internet sites for news grew only slightly during the 2000-2002 period -- a sharp contrast from the rapid growth of the late 1990s. The number that said they go online at least three times a week for news was one in four. That was not significantly higher than two years ago and may reflect the slower growth of Internet access.
In the poll, 32% said they regularly watch the evening network news on ABC, CBS, or NBC, about the same as the 30% who said the same in 2000. Twice that many said a decade ago that they regularly watched the evening network news.
The news audience that regularly gets its news from cable stations remained about the same as network news, or one in three, the poll found.
"Increased interest in national news, and even some additional interest in international news, has helped stem the steady loss of network news viewers over the last decade," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center.
The number of people who said they follow national news closely most of the time increased from 48% to 53% between 2000 and this year. The number who followed overseas developments very closely most of the time rose slightly.
"The poll suggests a kind of remarkable durability to evening news," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "When you think that 30 million people still watch the evening news at a time when fewer and fewer Americans are really home, it's kind of a miracle."
Some have predicted the days are numbered for the network nightly newscasts as more people get news from cable, the Internet, and other sources.
Newspapers continued to feel the effects of changing news habits. Only a quarter of those under age 30 said they had read a paper the previous day. Younger Americans tended to focus more on radio, magazines, and the Internet for their news, the survey suggested.
In the past decade, much of the decline in newspaper readership has come in the 35-49 age group. "These people are not growing up to be loyal newspaper readers or network news viewers," Kohut said.
Older readers have shown loyalty to their newspaper. Newspaper readership among those 60 and older has been relatively steady over the past decade. The gap between younger and older Americans is very noticeable in the viewership of television news, and especially network news broadcasts.
Asked what they watched the previous day, people 65 or older were nearly twice as likely as those under 30 to say they had seen news on television.
"Long-term generational trends haven't been much diminished by the attacks of Sept. 11," Kohut said. "There are still these big age gaps in how much newspaper reading is going on. We still have network news viewing strongly correlated with age."
High interest in international news is closely related to the war on terror and the Middle East, the poll found. Almost half, 46%, closely followed news about defending against terror attacks, and four in 10 closely followed military efforts in Afghanistan and the violence in the Middle East. One-quarter closely followed the Rome meeting on the priest sexual abuse scandal.
By contrast, interest in other international stories such as the attempted coup in Venezuela and the French elections remained low.
The poll of 3,002 adults was taken from April 26 to May 12 and has an error margin of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Pew Research Center:
http://www.people-press.org
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