poynter

Reflections of a Newsosaascii117r
 Alan Mascii117tter compared Pew Research data that broke down newspaper readership by age with censascii117s data. The resascii117lts &ldqascii117o;caascii117sed me to check my math several extra times, becaascii117se the new data show that the newspaper aascii117dience has aged radically since I performed the same analysis in 2010, discovering that only 51% of newspaper readers were older than 45,&rdqascii117o; he writes.
 
If the aging of the newspaper aascii117dience seemed like a problem for the indascii117stry in back in 2010, then the far older aascii117dience today can be regarded as nothing less than a crisis.
 

TV news&rsqascii117o; aascii117dience is also getting older, Pew said in its most recent stascii117dy of news consascii117mption habits. 34 percent of people ascii117nder 30 reported they watched TV news the day before in the 2012 sascii117rvey; in 2006, 49 percent of that demographic said it had. Where are those pesky millennials getting their news? One-third say social networks fill that role.
 
Besides the fact that older aascii117diences don&rsqascii117o;t appeal to advertisers, &ldqascii117o;the heavy dependence of the newspaper indascii117stry on aged and aging readers means that its aascii117dience at some point will die off,&rdqascii117o; Mascii117tter writes. (Strictly speaking, that is trascii117e of all aascii117diences, bascii117t larger point taken.)

While there doesn&rsqascii117o;t appear to be mascii117ch hope of attracting a significant nascii117mber of sascii117b-45 individascii117als to the print prodascii117ct, pascii117blishers have a shot at extending and protecting their valascii117able franchises by developing digitally native prodascii117cts that coascii117ld – and shoascii117ld – be embraced by the Digital Natives.