Christopher Sopher, a senior at the University of North Carolina, has posted a list of 10 Ways to Improve News for Young People. His first three suggestions: 1. Use road signs and maps; 2.Offer wisdom journalism; and 3. Personalize.

Sopher recently discussed his research on the Nieman Journalism Lab site. His conclusion is that "news organizations need to create a more usable, relevant, and explanatory experience and combine it with serious support for news literacy and news-in-schools programs that communicate to young people why they ought to use and support journalism."

Sopher's complete report, Younger Thinking, draws on research from the Readership Institute and the Media Management Center.

77% of adult Canadians read a print or online newspaper at least once a week in markets where dailies are available, according to the 2009 readership study released by NADbank. Most (73%) are reading the print editions, 22% read the online editions, and only 4% read online exclusively. Readership is flat or even slightly increased from last year, and is fairly consistent across age groups and occupations.

Canadians also are for the first time spending more time online - 18 hours per week - than they are watching television, though their TV time has also increased, according to a new Ipsos Reid tracking study. But Canadians aren't neglecting their newspapers, magazines, or radio either; the hours spent with these media have remained stable. So where do they find the time?

The Pew Research Center's State of the News Media 2010 report suggests that newspapers and other journalistic organizations are losing the race to find new revenue models to support news reporting. Newspapers, radio, local and network television, magazines, and online ad revenues all declined in 2009; only cable - largely thanks to Fox News - held its own.

Pew is pessimistic that online ads or paywalls are the answer. It found that 79% of online users said that they rarely or never click on online ads and only 19% would pay to visit their favorite site. New media models, such as non-profit news starts-ups, are not picking up the slack in revenues or reporting. Non-profits have invested a total of $141 million in new media efforts since 2006; newspapers have had to cut their annual newsroom budgets by $1.6 billion since 2000.

A new report from Outsell contends that newspaper circulation will continue to decline at a 3.5% annual rate as new consumers turn to the Internet for "News Right Now." Jack Loechner at MediaPost summarizes the report; newspapers will be most vulnerable on national topics and strongest on local topics, news, family events, and entertainment. Paywalls don't seem promising; 75% of these surveyed said they would look for free news elsewhere online if their newspaper Web sites required some sort of paid subscription.

A new study by the Media Management Center suggests that U.S. newspaper journalists are ready and even eager to make the transition to digital in their jobs. Life beyond print surveyed almost 3,800 journalists in 79 newsrooms across the U.S. Far from being resistant to change, almost half of the journalists surveyed said that their newsroom's transition from print to digital was going too slowly. Only 20% like things the way they are or long for a return to the good old days.

People seeking information about the recession were more likely to rely on television, radio, and print than the Internet, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. 84% of the people polled said they used television or radio to get news about the economy, 64% read newspapers, magazines, and books, and 48% used the Internet. Broadband users used the Internet more, but were still more likely to use broadcast and just as likely to use print to get their economic news. Pew's report is based on a telephone survey of 2,253 adults from March 26 to April 19, 2009.

Most newspapers continue to be profitable, despite the issues that you read about. The question many may be asking today is how long can they hold on? PriceWaterhouseCoopers has issued its Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2009-2013 and predicts an advertising turnaround in 2011 for the publishing industry. Even then it is not good news. Writing in his Paid Content blog, Rafat Ali quoted the following from the forecast:

• Four segments - recorded music, B2B publishing, newspapers, and consumer magazines - will suffer actual declines in total global revenues during 2009-2013 as a whole, in stark contrast to CAGR in excess of 6 percent in Internet access, Internet advertising, video games, and TV subscriptions and license fees, and of 4 percent in filmed entertainment, which will become an increasingly digitally-driven segment.


• Advertising revenues as a whole are facing a period of broad decline over the coming five years, with global advertising spend across all media projected to be still below its 2008 level in 2013. This means a "profound structural shift during the five years towards more targeted and cost-effective ad models enabled by digital. This in turn may result in a permanent reduction in total advertising spend, as dollars formerly 'wasted' through inaccurate targeting are saved and reallocated to other priorities," says the report.