TV News Viewership Stabilizes

WASHINGTON — The number of people who watch network evening news on the three major broadcast networks stabilized over the last two years, says a poll that suggests increased news interest after Sept. 11 is at least partially responsible.

Despite that higher interest, the number of people who said they had read a newspaper the previous day declined to 41%, down from 47% in 2000, according to the poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

Online news consumption grew only slightly during that period--a sharp contrast from the rapid growth of the late 1990s. The number who said they go online at least three times a week for news was 1 in 4. That was not significantly higher than two years ago and may reflect the slower growth of Internet access.

About a third of the public, or 32%, said they regularly watch the evening news on ABC, CBS or NBC, the survey showed, roughly the same percentage as in 2000. Twice that many said a decade ago that they regularly watched the evening network news.

The news audience that regularly gets its news from cable stations remained about the same as network news, or 1 in 3, according to the poll.

“Increased interest in national news, and even some additional interest in international news, has helped stem the steady loss of network news viewers over the last decade,” said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center.

The number of people who said they follow national news closely most of the time increased slightly, to 53% from 48%. The number who followed overseas developments very closely most of the time also was up slightly.

“The poll suggests a kind of remarkable durability to evening news,” said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. “When you think that 30 million people still watch the evening news at a time when fewer and fewer Americans are really home, it’s kind of a miracle.”

Newspapers have been particularly hard hit by changing news habits. Only a quarter of those younger than 30 said they had read a paper the previous day.

In the last decade, much of the decline in newspaper readership has come in the 35-49 age group. “These people are not growing up to be loyal newspaper readers or network news viewers,” Kohut said.

Newspaper readership among those 60 and older has been relatively steady over the last decade.

The gap between younger and older Americans is particularly noticeable in the viewership of television news, and especially network news broadcasts.

Asked what they watched the previous day, people 65 or older were nearly twice as likely as those younger than 30 to say they had seen news on television.

The poll of 3,002 adults was taken from April 26 to May 12 and had an error margin of plus or minus 2 percentage points.