51% of smart phone owners use the device to consume news

For the past nine years the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism has been putting together a report on the state of the news media.  The report analyzes the news industry in great detail and attempts to identify trends and patterns in media.  Here's a link to the site in case you want to check it out further, and below are several ideas and facts that I found interesting.  http://stateofthemedia.org/

70% of American adults who own a laptop or desktop use it to get news, as well as 51% of smartphone owners and 56% of tablet owners.

• Wow - this means that a large portion of the American public are accessing news and media 24 hours a day from mobile devices.  This sets a precedent and must create an immense amount of pressure for news media outlets to be the first with a story.  The Pew Report said that the trends towards mobile news is good for journalism, but I also can't help thinking if it also detracts from the quality of the information pushed out to the public. 

Each day, approximately 22.5 million people watched a news programs on ABC, CBS or NBC.  This is an increase of 972,700 viewers (4.5%) from the previous year.

•  Since technology usage has increased our news consumption to a 24hr cycle, the public now has access to the news all hours of the day.  This means that a large portion of the demographic already knows the media highlights on any given day before they tune into the evening news.  Thus, I was surprised to learn that audiences for evening news shows have increased - I would have anticipated a decline in viewership.  I wonder what is more appealing to the public - the images, discussion, reliability and trusted reputations of a television news program, or the convenience of being able to access news at their leisure?

In 2011, business, education, and health related stories appeared more often and received more coverage in newspapers than from other media outlets.  Elections, U.S foreign affairs, and crime received less coverage in newspapers.  The level of attention to the economy is similar between the two mediums.

• It seems to me like the more sensational and fast paced topics were not covered as often in newspapers.  Is this because the story is old by the time a newspaper has written, edited and printed the information as news?  And do people trust newspapers more for stories that rely heavily on facts and figures as opposed to opinions and heresy?

On average, approximately 13.1 million people watch one of three morning network news programs each day.  This is up 5.4% from 12.4 million in 2010.

•   I was surprised by this fact.  I feel like there is a trend towards people's lives getting busier (they are leaving for work earlier, trying to get the kids ready for school and a multitude of activities) and would have less leisure time in the morning to watch something like Good Morning America.  I wonder if the large unemployment rates have contributed to the increase in morning news viewership? 

Advertising in magazines has been declining steadily over the past several years.  In 2011, food and food product makers had a 17% decrease in the amount of ads they ran, however finance increased 12.7%, apparel increased 5.5%, and cosmetics increased 3.8%

• These numbers were surprising to me, because while I knew that overall magazine advertising was declining, I was surprised to see increases in the finance, apparel, and cosmetics markets.  The reason I was surprised is because apparel and cosmetics are often construed as non essential and sometimes luxury items.  I didn't anticipate their market share to grow in a down economy.  I wish the report would elaborate as to the specific magazines or brands that were used to source the data.