Statistics suggest print reader loyalty is waning, with 22 per cent of newspaper readers claiming they would not miss their print edition if it were to fold
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The future of American daily newspapers was given a bleak outlook in the Center for the Digital Future's annual study this week.
The research found that newspapers were declining year-on-year as an important source of information for those surveyed, dropping to 56 per cent this year from 60 per cent in 2008.
As expected, this places print publications well below the internet at 79 per cent and television at 68 per cent.
And it is not just current affairs taking a hit, with entertainment news in American papers valued as an "important source" by just 29 per cent of internet users.
The statistics also suggest that print reader loyalty is waning, with 22 per cent of newspaper readers claiming they would not miss their print edition if it were to fold.
But this does not mean they will take their payments anywhere online either, the study says.
In fact all of those questioned claimed they would not pay to use microblogging sites such as Twitter.
"Such an extreme finding that produced a zero response underscores the difficulty of getting internet users to pay for anything that they already receive for free," director of the Center for the Digital Future Jeffrey Cole said in a release.
"Twitter has no plans to charge its users, but this result illustrates, beyond any doubt, the tremendous problem of transforming free users into paying users. Online providers face major challenges to get customers to pay for services they now receive for free."
