The always indispensable Croydonian is very fond of surveys and research, and sometimes uses the Washington-based Pew Research Center for People & the Press as a source, although he hasn’t used this result (yet).

He blogs rather than produces a dead-tree newsletter, which seems very sensible as the latest from the Pew shows that apparently the internet has overtaken newspapers as a source for national and international news for Americans.

However, the survey found that television remains the preferred medium for Americans. Simpsons and the Superbowl don’t blog well, it seems.

The research found that Americans had changed their news-consumption habits significantly in just the last year. Forty per cent of the 1,489 people surveyed by Pew said they get most of their news from the internet, up from 24 per cent in September 2007, and more than the 35 per cent who use newspapers as their main news source. One wonders whether the Presidential election had an influence in this switch and if it will reverse.

But 70 per cent said television is their primary source for national and international news which probably explains the US election result with every major news station shamelessly shilling for the Obamessiah.

Only 59 per cent of people younger than 30 years old prefer television down from 68 per cent in the September 2007 survey.

The research, conducted earlier this month, comes at a time of job cuts at US newspapers amid the economic downturn and its knock-on effect on advertising revenue. Some, including the Christian Science Monitor, have completely abandoned their daily print editions in favour of publishing online.

TheEye won’t miss the CSM but will be grumpy if The Spectator fails to appear.