55% of all Americans check in with their favorite local television news program every day, and another 14% view it several times a week, according to The Gallup Poll's recent study of media news sources. Perhaps an even more impressive number, however, is the percentage of respondents who claim never to check in with a local TV news program, a scant 8% (23% said they tune in occasionally). Local newspapers trail in both the daily and frequent categories with 44%/13% shares respectively - but the good news here is that a long-term downtrend flattened as the results matched those of 2004 almost perfectly. Talk radio continued a slight downtrend that has seen it fall from 22%/10% in 2002 and 21%/12% in 2004 to 20%/9% this time, but still reaches over half of all Americans at least once in awhile, and remains almost double its level in 1998. The trajectory of growth for internet news flattened considerably. Daily users went from 20% to 22% over the two-year period. Perhaps its most significant change is that the number of respondents who never use it declined from 49% to 43%.
| Medium |
Daily |
Several
x/weekly |
On
occasion |
Never |
| Local TV news |
55% |
14% |
23% |
8% |
| Local newspaper |
44% |
13% |
28% |
14% |
| Nightly network news |
35% |
16% |
30% |
19% |
| Cable news nets |
34% |
16% |
30% |
20% |
| Public TV news |
28% |
12% |
30% |
30% |
| Morning TV net news/info |
28% |
11% |
26% |
35% |
| Internet news |
22% |
11% |
24% |
43% |
| Evening net TV newsmags |
20% |
12% |
45% |
23% |
| Talk radio |
20% |
9% |
27% |
44% |
| NPR |
19% |
8% |
28% |
45% |
| Sunday morning TV |
19% |
5% |
26% |
50% |
| News magazines |
12% |
6% |
18% |
64% |
| National newspapers |
7% |
6% |
23% |
62% |
Source: Gallup Poll News Service
