US Internet Users Prefer Online Sources To Traditional Newspapers

A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center has revealed that a large section of people in the US prefer to read news online rather than reading it from traditional newspapers.

The study placed online news services as the third most popular news source used by US citizens, right behind national and local TV news channels.

The research results threw light on the deteriorating newspaper sales being experienced by newspaper publishing companies, as they struggle to stay afloat in the face of rising popularity of internet enabled devices and online news services.

Commenting on the results of the study, Amy Mitchell, deputy director for the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, said in a statement that “Americans have become news grazers both on and offline - but within limits. They generally don't have one favourite website but also don't search aimlessly. Most online news consumers regularly draw on just a handful of different sites.”

According to the study results, 61 percent of the respondents claimed that they read their daily news online, while 78 percent went for local news channels and 71 percent preferred national television news.

On the other hand, merely 50 percent of the respondents claimed that they read traditional newspapers for their daily dose of news.