The newspaper industry has been making quite a bit of news itself lately, as metro papers across the country close shop. The trend is unmistakable: fewer Americans (only 25%) are reading print newspapers. That’s down 9 percentage points from 2006, when 34% said they read a print newspaper. True, more Americans are reading newspapers online now; 14% say they read a newspaper online yesterday (including 9% who only read online), up from 9% in 2006 (5% only online). However, this increase in online readership does not make up for the total loss in readership. The percentage of Americans reading a newspaper (online or in print) fell from 43% in 2006 to 39% in 2008. Read More

Russell Heimlich  is a former web developer at Pew Research Center.