In 1986, 72% of 18 to 27-year-olds read a daily paper at least three days a week. In 2006, the figure had dropped to 42%.

And within those 72% who read the paper in 1986, only 42% of them still read a daily paper 20 years afterwards.

"Popular newspapers were once a mechanism whereby information about politics could reach those with little inclination to follow political matters," says John Curtice, a professor of politics at Strathclyde university.

"Now they are increasingly unable to fulfill that role. Instead readership is increasingly confined to those with an interest in politics."

Guardian blogger Roy Greenslade draws an even more pessimistic conclusion from the report’s results. In today’s column, he argues that the general public could simply have lost its interest for news – that is, hard, analytical news.

“British people - and, I'd guess, many people in the affluent western democracies - no longer feel it necessary to know what is happening in the worlds of politics, economics, international affairs and so on. The news they feel they need to know is ambient. They pick it up by osmosis,” wrote Greenslade.

Any thoughts?

Source: Financial Times – Guardian through IFRA Executive News Service