Radio News Consumption Down; Other Listening Trends Noted in Report

The number of people who say they “listened to radio news yesterday” fell from 47% in 1994 to 36% this year.
That’s one of the statistics about media consumption in a report from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
“The percentage getting news from any source is significantly lower than it was in the mid-1990s, before Internet news became popular,” the report continued. “Roughly eight-in-ten (81%) say they got news yesterday either from TV, newspapers, radio or by going online. That represents a slight decline from 2004 (85%), but a more substantial drop since 1994 (90%).”
Looking at the radio statistics by age: in the 18-29 demo, 26 percent said they listened to radio news yesterday, while 43% of those 30-49 said so. The percentage was 39% for those 50-64 and only 27% for those 65+.
The average time spent “yesterday” with news on radio has been relatively stable, at 16 minutes in 2006 compared to 17 minutes 12 years ago.
Other Pew findings:
“The audience for radio news, which has long been popular with auto-bound commuters, is largely comprised of well-educated, middle-aged males. More than four-in-10 men (42%) say they listened to news on the radio yesterday, compared with 31% of women. Roughly four-in-10 people (41%) ages 30-64 say they tune into radio news on a typical day, compared with 27% of those ages 65 and older, and 26% of those under 30. And college graduates are far more likely to tune into radio news on a typical day than people with a high school education or less (by 47% to 28%).”
Also, the regular audience for radio call-in programs has increased “modestly” and there is “less of a partisan tilt to the radio talk show audience than in the late 1990s,” the authors found.
Seventeen percent of Americans say they regularly listen to NPR, up from 13% a decade ago and 9% in 1994. And among NPR listeners, Democrats outnumber Republicans 22%-13%, whereas “a decade ago, 15% of Democrats, 14% of independents and 11% of Republicans said they regularly listened to NPR.”
And, “Despite the vast array of news sources these days, a significant number of Americans (19%) say they got no news yesterday from television, newspapers, radio or the Internet,” the Pew study found.