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Two in Five Regularly Read Newspapers, Most Rely on TV for News

There is still a place for newspapers in the new information age, but it’s not as expansive as it used to be, with less than 4 of 10 adults - 39 percent - in the U.S. saying they regularly read daily newspapers, according to a recent Harris Poll, writes MarketingCharts.

Readership of major daily newspapers ranges from a low of 6 percent of adults in Great Britain and Italy to a high of 13 percent in Spain and Germany, according to a Harris survey of adults in five European countries, Australia and the United States.

The top source for news in each country is TV network news.

But respondents said online news and information sites would in five years become the number-one source of news and information in the U.S., France, Italy, and Spain (and tied for first in Australia), with TV network news remaining the top source in Great Britain and Germany.

Newspaper readership

Almost half (48 percent) of Spanish adults and 46 percent of Germans are regular readers (5 or more days a week). Two out of five U.S. adults (39 percent) are regular readers, as are one-third of British adults (35 percent), Italian adults (34 percent) and Australian adults (33 percent).

The number-one reason for not reading the newspaper is lack of time for U.S. (58 percent), French (57 percent), German (56 percent) and Australian (66 percent) adults. For British and Spanish adults, the top reason is that it is biased or offers too narrow of a viewpoint in its reporting (54 percent for each).

Moreover, half or more of Italian, U.S., French and Australian adults, say it is easier to get their news online.

Half of adults in Germany and Australia as well as more than half of French (54 percent), U.S. (56 percent) and Spanish adults (58 percent) access online news and information sites at least once a day.

In Italy, this number jumps as three-quarters of adults (74 percent) access online news sites at least once a day.

One-third (31 percent) of British adults do not access online news sites with any regularity and an additional 28 percent of them only access them about once a week.

MarketingCharts’s coverage offers more data and tables.