Sifter

Are people still picking up newspapers? With the popularity of the Internet, more and more people apparently are choosing to click through a Web site rather than flip and fold a newspaper. Then again, some still prefer to sit on the porch with a cup of coffee and get their hands dirty with black ink. The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) released these statistics showing a slow decline in daily newspaper readership in the top 50 markets since 1998, despite a 10 percent increase in population during the same period. The NAA also found that 16 million adults in the top 50 markets read the newspaper online.

Year Total Avg. Weekday % of Avg. Sunday % of Adults Readership Adults Readership Adults

1998 134,992,000 79,046,000 58.6 92,039,000 68.2

1999 136,575,000 77,680,000 56.9 91,415,000 66.9

2000 138,937,000 76,596,000 55.1 90,450,000 65.1

2001 140,609,000 76,367,000 54.3 89,506,000 63.7

2002 143,668,000 79,638,000 55.4 91,378,000 63.6

2003 146,323,000 79,094,000 54.1 91,500,000 62.5

2004 148,340,000 78,285,000 52.8 90,795,000 61.2