• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

How the Election Sparked an Interest in Major Newspapers Among Millennials

Barb Darrow
By
Barb Darrow
Barb Darrow
Down Arrow Button Icon
Barb Darrow
By
Barb Darrow
Barb Darrow
Down Arrow Button Icon
February 17, 2017, 1:26 PM ET
US-INTERNET-MEDIA-TAKEOVER-AMAZON-WASHINGTONPOST
A man walks past The Washington Post on August 5, 2013 in Washington, DC after it was announced that Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos had agreed to purchase the Post for USD 250 million. Multi-billionaire Bezos, who created Amazon, which has soared in a few years to a dominant position in online retailing, said he was buying the Post in his personal capacity and hoped to shepherd it through the evolution away from traditional newsprint. AFP PHOTO/Brendan SMIALOWSKI (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI AFP/Getty Images

Here’s a twist: Since the U.S. presidential election, younger Americans who hadn’t typically turned to newspapers for their news are now doing so—at least to a handful of those papers—for political news.

According to new Pew Center Research findings, more adults under the age of 50—at rates greater than their elders—said they regularly got news from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.

For example, 44% of adults between the ages of 18 and 49 said they got election news from The New York Times, compared to 23% of adults aged 50 or older, according to the survey. And, 37% of that younger cohort listed The Washington Post as a regular news source, compared to 19% of those over 50. And, 27% of the younger cohort turned to The Wall Street Journal versus 15% of older adults.

The survey covered both online and print versions of the various papers. The chart below has the full breakdown.

Younger Americans regularly got election news from nationally focused newspapers at equal or greater rates than their elders; lower for local daily papers

But it doesn’t look like the youth boom helped smaller, local papers. Older adults (67% of respondents) are more likely than younger readers (23% of respondents) to have received election news regularly from local daily papers.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

The survey—conducted from November 29, 2016 through December 12, 2016—covered 4,183 adults in what Pew said is nationally representative American Trends Panel.

For more on media election coverage, watch:

While higher readership among young Americans is good news for the major national papers—which have all aggressively pursued younger readership for their digital editions—it remains to be seen how much this helps their respective bottom lines.

About the Author
Barb Darrow
By Barb Darrow
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Economy
'I just don't have a good feeling about this': Top economist Claudia Sahm says the economy quietly shifted and everyone's now looking at the wrong alarm
By Eleanor PringleJanuary 31, 2026
20 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Alexis Ohanian walked out of the LSAT 20 minutes in, went to a Waffle House, and decided he was 'gonna invent a career.' He founded Reddit
By Preston ForeJanuary 31, 2026
13 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Ryan Serhant starts work at 4:30 a.m.—he says most people don’t achieve their dreams because ‘what they really want is just to be lazy’
By Preston ForeJanuary 31, 2026
15 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Future of Work
Ford CEO has 5,000 open mechanic jobs with up to 6-figure salaries from the shortage of manually skilled workers: 'We are in trouble in our country'
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJanuary 31, 2026
13 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
Right before Trump named Warsh to lead the Fed, Powell seemed to respond to some of his biggest complaints about the central bank
By Jason MaJanuary 30, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
AI
Top engineers at Anthropic, OpenAI say AI now writes 100% of their code—with big implications for the future of software development jobs
By Beatrice NolanJanuary 29, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.


Latest in

LawJeffrey Epstein
Epstein files lead to resignation of top Slovakian official, while British prime minister calls on former prince to cooperate with U.S. authorities
By Michael R. Sisak, Danica Kirka, Ben Finley and The Associated PressJanuary 31, 2026
4 hours ago
Startups & VentureOpenAI
Nvidia CEO signals investment in OpenAI round may be largest yet
By Debby Wu and BloombergJanuary 31, 2026
5 hours ago
Economygeopolitics
BRICS could become a new pillar of global governance—if its rapid growth doesn’t erode its newfound clout
By Brian WongJanuary 31, 2026
6 hours ago
LawICE
Judge orders 5-year-old boy and his dad released from ICE detention, citing ‘incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas’
By Geoff Mulvihill and The Associated PressJanuary 31, 2026
6 hours ago
EconomyFederal Reserve
Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh could crush Trump’s rate-cut hopes and risk suffering the same level of abuse that Powell got, analysts say
By Jason MaJanuary 31, 2026
6 hours ago
EconomyDebt
Trump thinks a weaker dollar is great, but the U.S. needs a stable currency as national debt heads toward $40 trillion, former Fed president says
By Jason MaJanuary 31, 2026
8 hours ago