In an age of high-speed Internet, iPads and 5.9 billion mobile phone subscriptions, it's safe to say the online world has replaced the newspaper as the chief of the media landscape. But there's some good news for those in the print media industry: young people still read newspapers.
According to a data by GfK MRI, a German company specializing in media and consumer research in the United States, those between the ages of 18-24 are on track with adults when it comes to moderate newspaper reading.
Roughly 52 per cent of young adults are picking up newspapers at least once a month and at times, read the dead-tree edition of the news fourteen times a month, reports NPR. Yes, actually reading, as in not noticing newspapers on a table, not using newspapers to line bird cages and not using newspapers for paper-mâché art but reading newspapers for the sake of seeking new information.
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The data published also reveals that young adults remain on par with their older counterparts, except when it comes to heavy readership (those who read a newspaper at least 25 times a month) with only eight per cent of millennial doing so, compared to 20 per cent for adults.
The gap in readership still applies in Canada, with baby boomers holding onto 81 per cent of the total weekly readership, compared to millennials who only hold 74 per cent of the weekly total readership, according to the latest data from the Newspaper Audience Databank.
Despite the dominance of digital media, some millennials say that they’re attached to paper due to trust and ease of use, noted a separate 2011 study by TRU, a youth research group. The study found that: 65 per cent of the 600 young adults surveyed said that "it is easier for me to view or read something on paper than to read it on a computer screen or some other tech device."