As more Americans consume news online, news organizations in the United States (U.S.) are reallocating their resources and expanding their services to cater to the needs of their customers. The media landscape white paper released by PR Newswire for the U.S. market contains latest findings on the various types of media frequently used by Americans and their news reading habits. The white paper will be useful for companies that are expanding into the U.S. or wanting to establish a stronger branding in the market. The white paper is now available for download.

Here are some key findings on Americans’ news reading habits:

57% of Americans still prefer to get news from the television

• Despite the popularity of digital media where information is widely available, television is still the dominant channel for Americans to consume news.
• The top three television news channels are Fox, CNN and MSNBC. In 2015, the total viewership for these channels increased by seven percent to two million viewers.
• Television is one of the media channels for companies to target the older generation.

Newspaper readers prefer to consume news on the Internet  

• The U.S. newspaper circulation has been on a downward trend since 2010 as news readers prefer to read news from the Internet. Thus, many newspaper agencies digitize their business model by providing paid online subscriptions to reach out to new audience. Some even use social widgets like Facebook as a visual storytelling tool to engage young readers and to increase their exposure digitally.
• The top three influential online news media are Yahoo News, The Huffington Post and Fox News.
• The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today are the top three newspaper publications that still have key influence over how Americans learn about world affairs.

Social networking sites have become one of the news sources for Americans

• 62% of Americans use social media to get news, a substantial increase from 47% in 2012. During the U.S. presidential election in 2016, 44% of Americans, as compared to 17% in 2012, relied on social media for the latest updates.
• Facebook is the top social networking site followed by Blogger, LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Twitter dominates the microblogging industry in the U.S. and is the fastest news dissemination channel for bite-sized news.

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