Over just the last year, Americans have radically changed their media consuming habits, abandoning TV news in favor of online sources, a trend that could have the internet as the nation's No. 1 news provider in a year.



The latest Pew Research Center review of news consumption that showed a 19-point gap between TV news and online shrunk to just 7 points in the last year. Those "often" getting news from TV dropped from 57 percent last year to 50 percent this year, while online grew from 38 percent to 43 percent.

"The decline in television news use occurs across all three types of TV news asked about in the survey – local, network and cable – but is greatest for local television news," said Pew.

TV is already losing to online for everybody younger than 50.

In its analysis, the Nieman Lab said the shift can be attributed to older Americans turning more and more to online news sources. Certainly online media like the Drudge Report and CNN have seen increases in the past year.



"The shift is driven by older people — who are also increasingly using social media for news and getting news on mobile," said Nieman.

The drop in those who often get their news from printed newspapers wasn't very large, but that's because it is already at a record low. It dropped from 20 percent to 18 percent.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com