Why Commercial Breaks During News Broadcasts Are Full Of Celebrex Ads, And Other Poll Results

By: Hillary Profita
Topics: Mega-Media Trends

Most news industry chatter these days never fails to touch upon on a declining interest in newspapers and networks scrambling to entice the kiddos to watch network news. And as such, Harris Interactive released the results of a poll today (it should appear on their site sometime in the next day) that attempts to quantify the news consumers' viewing, reading and Web surfing habits (at least those of the 2,985 U.S. adults surveyed online between January 12 and 17, 2006.) Some of the results:

Unsurprisingly, "Matures" (that's people 59 and older, in pollster jargon) were the most likely to watch network or cable news, with 88% responding that they watched either "daily" or "several times a week." Fifty-one percent of "Echo Boomers" (18-27 year olds) did the same.

Among all adult age groups, 71% watch network or cable news daily or several times a week, but local news appears much more popular, with 77% tuning in with similar regularity -- Gen Xers (ages 28-39) get their news from local broadcasts more than any other group. Local newspapers are also more popular that national newspapers among all groups – 63% of adults read them daily or several times a week, while only 18% read a national paper that often.

"Baby Boomers" (you've heard of those, ages 40-58) are more likely than other age groups to get their news online, with 70% surfing for news daily or several days a week. Oddly, this poll reveals that Echo Boomers get their news online less often (53% daily or several days a week) than "Matures" (57%,) but that might be because, as the poll notes, Echo Boomers "are the least frequent users of media" overall to get their news. Damn kids.

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by ronmwanga February 27, 2006 4:16 PM EST: somewhere the Public Eye blog noted that a large percentage of Morning Show viewers were 60-plus (which is astonishing), which would explain the kaleidescope of pahramceutical ads (watching CBS News is sometimes not unlike walking past Washington Square park in the summer).; Reply to this comment