Few sectors witnessed the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic like the print media industry. The coronavirus crisis put journalism’s future in peril, hitting the newspaper sector—already on shaky ground due to years of plummeting ad revenues—with yet another economic downturn, as companies in every sector affected by the disaster scaled back their advertising budgets, setting off another round of closures and layoffs in the print publishing world.
Other news media publishers successfully staved off this economic fallout by pivoting to digital platforms, as the pandemic simultaneously drove an unprecedented sea-change in Americans’ media consumption habits, with many turning to online media as their primary source of news and information.
But as it turns out, print remains a widely-used and highly-valued resource among many. According to a survey commissioned by graphic communications non-profit Two Sides North America, large numbers of Americans still depend on print newspapers, magazines and books to stay informed and entertained.
The survey, which sought to uncover Americans’ media consumption habits now that work- travel- and leisure-related restrictions are being lifted across the country, found that nearly three in 10 respondents (29 percent) still prefer to read newspapers in print—a figure that climbs to more than four in 10 among respondents over the age of 55.
More than a third (38 percent) said they also still prefer to read magazines in print. Among those over 55, that figure jumped to nearly half (49 percent). For Americans over 65, the number accounts for nearly two-thirds (63 percent).
Nearly half of all respondents (44 percent) said they still prefer to read books in print.
As might be expected, the Two Sides survey discovered that younger adults prefer to consume media digitally (particularly among those ages 18–24). But even among that audience, more than a quarter (27 percent) said they prefer to read books in print.
Nearly half of all respondents (44 percent) said they feel they gain a better understanding of a news story when reading it in print versus online. Additionally, half of all respondents (49 percent) said they’d be concerned if print news were to disappear.
More than half (58 percent) of respondents said they intend to read more news online in the future, though nearly the same number (52 percent) also admitted they spend too much time on their electronic devices.
Two Sides’ survey, “Paper’s Place in a Post-Pandemic World,” was conducted by global research firm Toluna and polled 1,000 U.S. adults in January.

Versant Media Group, the NBCUniversal cable TV spin-off, today reported its first financial results as 2025 revenues dipped 5.3 percent to $6.7B and standalone EBITDA dropped 9.1 percent to $2.2B.
Trump Media & Technology Group is discussing a spin-off of the Truth Social platform following the expected closing of its $6B merger deal with TAE Technologies... Condé Nast sells off Them, the digital LGBTQ-focused platform it launched in 2017, to Equalpride, publisher of Out, The Advocate, Out Traveler, Health PLUS Wellness and Pride.com... CBS News has parted ways with longevity influencer Peter Attia, one of the 19 contributors that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss brought on as part of her plan to present a wider variety of voices on the platform.
Symbolic.ai forms a partnership with News Corp to begin using the company’s AI-native publisher platform in the newsrooms of News Corp publications to augment research, writing and publishing... Mediaite launches a newsletter that promises to give readers a summary of—media newsletters... The Fund for American Studies launches the Journalism Excellence Fellowship, a program that will provide promising young journalists the opportunity to work alongside top writers, reporters, and media professionals.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which has roots going back to 1786, is going out of business, the paper’s owners, Block Communications, announced on Jan. 7... GQ editor Will Welch is stepping down to take on a new Paris-based role with the musician Pharrell, who is also men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton... Semafor says it has raised $30 million on a $330 million valuation, following its first profitable year.
The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI reach an agreement that will make a set of more than 200 animated, masked and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars available for use by Sora, OpenAI’s short-form generative AI video platform... CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has moved Tony Dokoupil, a co-host at “CBS Mornings” since 2019, into the anchor’s chair for the “CBS Evening News,” following the departure of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois... USA Today editor-in-chief Caren Bohan has left the paper.



