Print Still Dominates Newspaper Readership

One of the many topics examined in Pew's State of the News Media 2015 report is media consumption by platform. Interestingly, print remains the dominant platform for newspaper readers—a potentially worrisome finding. Here is the distribution of newspaper readership by platform...

Distribution of newspaper readership by platform
Print only: 55%
Print/desktop: 15%
Print/desktop/mobile: 10%
Desktop only: 7%
Desktop/mobile: 5%
Print/mobile: 4%
Mobile only: 3%

Why is the continued dominance of print so worrisome? Because newspaper readership is declining. Only 24 percent of Americans aged 18 or older read a newspaper every day, according to the 2014 General Social Survey, down from 53 percent in pre-Internet 1990. Among Millennials, the figure is just 14 percent. The fact that print still dominates today's (shrinking) newspaper audience means younger generations are looking elsewhere for news.

Source: Pew Research Center, State of the News Media 2015 and 2014 General Social Survey