convergence might work in the longterm

When I sat down to read the Biennial Audience study from the Pew Research Center (published July 30, 2006), I decided to open a Word document, and copy and paste anything surprising I read. After reading two sections, I had four pages of comments.

The Pew study largely confirms what newspapers (and corporations) have been harping about for as long as I've been interested in journalism. "Readership is falling," we are told, "we are losing younger audiences." Media outlets seem to believe that the Internet is stealing their viewers, listeners and readers; therefore they compensate by piling their efforts and their content into their web sites.

But what the research shows is that the Internet has little to do with this drop off. A cultural shift in the way Americans read newspapers and consume news is at fault. The study states:

The arrival of the Internet as a news option has not changed this basic pattern of news consumption over the past decade...This stability reflects the fact that the Internet is, for the vast majority of its users, a supplement to other traditional news sources. Of the 23% who get news online on a given day, the vast majority also use other news sources; just 4% of the public relies on the web alone. And the average online news consumer spends far more time per day getting news on TV, newspaper and radio than they do getting news online.

Readership levels seem to be dipping for a litany of different reasons. This leads to one important realization-- media corporations' efforts to beef up web sites will not have their intended effect until the next generation of web users.

Journalism schools have overwhelmingly emphasized the importance of versatility and familiarity with various operating systems and programs. At Medill, newspaper students are required to take one class that teaches us a technological skill. In News and New Media, we learn how to write, report and design web projects. In Print Media Design, we learn Quark. In Analytical Reporting, we use programs to crunch numbers. This coursework reflects an industry-wide emphasis on technology and the Internet. What the Pew study suggests is that such efforts have no impact in the short run. The study says:

The reach of newspaper web sites is still limited. By far, most newspaper readers are still reading the print version ­ on a typical day fully 94% read it in print, while 14% read it on the Internet (some do both). Put in other terms, if Internet newspaper consumption were removed from the long-term trend and we looked at only the share reading the print version of the newspaper, the proportion who read yesterday would drop only a few points to 38% overall.

Still, the web is the primary avenue for younger people to get their news. Younger Americans are not cultivating a habit of reading newspapers in print. Just 22 percent of those under 30 report reading the newspaper in print the previous day, down 6 percent from 1996. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The study shows, "newspaper web sites make up for much of this loss. In fact, the very youngest adults surveyed ­ those ages 18 to 24 ­ were slightly more likely to have read a newspaper this year than a decade ago, due in large part to their increasing use of online newspapers."

What the research shows is that in the long run, corporations' emphasis on the Internet may prove to be smart. When younger readers, who overwhelmingly use the Internet for news, become the majority of media consumers, the statistics of readership may flip-flip dramatically. Readership for young people may also increase as they gain responsibilities, jobs and news becomes an integral part of their life and society.