Jun 12 2000: Despite current upheavals in the online media sector, the outlook is good for Internet news services.

Jun 12 2000: Despite current upheavals in the online media sector, the outlook is good for Internet news services, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. One in three members of the US public gets news from the Internet at least once a week, up from one in five in 1998. Furthermore, three times as many people, 15 percent, read online news daily than did in 1998. Online financial news services are now the leading news source for active financial investors looking for share prices and investment advice. Just under 60 percent of active traders have a personalised web page with share prices and 15 percent say they receive financial updates on a wireless device. As the Internet news audience grows, it is replacing television rather than newspapers. The Pew study finds that newspaper readership is holding steady but viewing figures for television news are dropping steadily. Only 45 percent of respondents said they enjoy keeping up with the news, down eight percentage points since 1994. Fewer than one in three young adults like stay to abreast of the news. Information overload is not a problem for most people. Almost two in three respondents said they liked the way the Internet made information available to them. Only 30 percent said they feel "overloaded" by information.