US citizens are migrating to the web when it comes to getting the latest news. In 2010 every news platform saw audiences either stall or decline, except for the internet. Cable news, one of the growth sectors of the last decade, is now shrinking, too. CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel all lost audiences, according to this year’s The State of the News Media 2011 research.
For the first time more people said they got news from the internet than from newspapers. The internet now trails only television among American adults as a destination for news, and the trend line shows the gap closing.
In 2010 all of the major US news channels had audience declines. At the largest of the news channels, Fox, the prime-time audience fell 11% to a median viewership of 1.9 million. MSNBC experienced the mildest drop in audience, falling 5%, to 747,000 in prime time. HLN, CNN’s sibling channel, lost 17% of its prime-time viewers, falling to an average of 434,000.
For a complete overview and analysis of the US news channel market see this section of The State of the News Media 2011, as carried out by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.
