The Pew Internet and American Life Project released a report on November 2 which shows that "half of all teenagers and 57% of teens who use the Internet could be considered Content Creators." This means, "they have created a blog or webpage, posted original artwork, photography, stories or videos online or remixed online content into their own new creations."

The report also discovered that 19% of teenagers keep a blog and that 38% read them.

"Teens are often much more enthusiastic authors and readers of blogs than their adult counterparts. Teen bloggers, led by older girls, are a major part of this tech-savvy cohort. Teen bloggers are more fervent internet users than non-bloggers and have more experience with almost every online activity in the survey."

Apart from the frequency of blog use, teenage habits have further ramifications for newspapers.

News habits: According to the study, 84% of blogging teenagers and 72% of their non-blogging peers get their "news or info about current events" online. For political news, 70% of teenage blogger and 52% of non-bloggers turn to the Net.

Classified ads: 39% of surveyed teenage bloggers and 28% of non-bloggers use the Internet to look for jobs. And these are 12-17 year-old kids, not exactly a huge part of the workforce. Think about how these habits will develop when they really begin looking for work.

Free vs. Paid Content: "Teens continue to actively download music and video from the internet and have used multiple sources to get their files. Those who get music files online believe it is unrealistic to expect people to self-regulate and avoid free downloading and file-sharing altogether."

Although the focus of this quote is music, consider the problems such free downloading has already caused for the music industry. Now think about how easy it is to find and share content online. Is it realistic to think that a generation growing up on free entertainment content that they enjoy (ie., music, photos, videos, etc.), will eventually pay for news content which, for the majority of them, isn't quite nearly as enjoyable?

If you are the traditional newspaper sort that thinks that as these generations get older and begin to care more about the world and their immediate surroundings that they will automatically subscribe to newspapers, you have already been proven wrong... and long ago.

Look at this graph from Philip Meyer who holds the Knight Chair of Journalism at the University of North Carolina, republished in an article by Ben Companie at Corante. It shows that as new media have emerged, the percentage of those who subscribe to newspapers drops considerably and thus; "the import of the data is that the pre-radio generation had and maintains a higher level of newspaper readership than the pre-television generation, which in turn is higher than the boomers who were raised with TV and radio. And the post-boomers, having had VCRs, DVDs, gazillion channel cable and, of course, the Internet, distracted by more media choices than ever, not surprisingly has the least need for-- or at least the least time for-- traditional newspapers."

So are kids who are already moving online, not to mention creating their own content that they share with their peers, going to reverse this trend and suddenly start filling out their newspaper subscriptions? Very highly doubtful.

Now think about this. In five to ten years this age group will be part of the one that advertisers covet most. Considering the rapid rate at which Internet advertising is already growing, as well as the slump that newspaper advertising presently finds itself, will advertisers continue to pay to promote their wares in a medium that their targeted generation is not using? Will there even be a "targeted generation" as the Internet is developing more sophisticated programs that target individuals?

Wrapping up, newspapers face two general challenges:

1. They must realize that the old print business model for consumers and advertisers does not translate to the online world and adapt accordingly. When doing this, their print business models are also likely to change, possibly becoming more niche and printing less frequently.

2. It is increasingly obvious that newspapers will also have to change their journalism model. Teenagers are growing up creating their own content, sharing it, mixing content to come up with hybrid yet original products. They, as well as their older peers, interact with themselves and increasingly with organizations online, a phenomenon that is currently being integrated into the news process. Consumers want video, images, audio, interaction and text all rolled into one, packages that newspapers, with the right investments can produce online.

Such developments do not mean the death of the investigative and watchdog newspaper journalism democracies and communities need to survive. But it does mean that newspaper journalism will have to adapt to accommodate the online evolution being fueled by its future audience.

Sources: Pew Internet and American Life Project, Steve Yelvington, Corante, Media Bistro