By James Lewin, Podcasting News

New research from comScore confirms one of the more important new media trends - that young people are abandoning newspapers for Internet media.

As a result, newspaper readership is getting smaller and older.

"That current generations are growing up getting their news online for free is an indicator that print circulations are likely to continue their decline," said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore.

Younger News Consumers Less Likely to Read Print Newspapers

Heavy print newspaper readers show a strong skew towards older age segments, while the non-newspaper reader segments skew younger.

• Those age 65 and older are nearly 3 times more likely (index of 296) than average to read the print edition of newspapers 6 times per week.
• Those age 18-24 are 38 percent more likely than average to not read a print newspaper at all during a typical week.

Non-Newspaper Readers are Heavy Online News Consumers

Just as interesting: people that have abandoned newspapers are some of the heaviest online media users:

• Based on their heavier than average visitation across most key news sites, those who do not read print versions of newspapers are not necessarily light news consumers.
• Print news sites have a stand-alone brand presence in the online world. For example, the Web sites for three of the largest U.S. city newspapers - the New York Times, LA Times and Chicago Tribune - show above average visitation from both heavy newspaper readers and non-readers.
• TV news brands are also heavily visited by non-print newspaper readers, underscoring the importance of sight, sound and motion to the digital news experience. Non-readers were 29 percent more likely than the average Internet user to visit FoxNews.com and 15 percent more likely to visit CBS News Digital.

Trends Favor Online News Sources

The shift from print to Internet presents a unique opportunity for online news providers.

Non-newspaper readers are a particularly important segment to reach because they are heavier than average news consumers - "they just prefer to consume it in a digital format," notes Flanagan. That they are receptive to print, TV, and Internet news brands indicates a broad opportunity online, but the brands that will ultimately win over these key news consumers are the ones that successfully integrate cutting edge digital content with high quality journalism.

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