ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (CAP) - A new study out of the Poynter Institute shows that more than 80 percent of teenagers don't recognize a newspaper even when one is placed directly in front of them.
Presented with a series of publications and periodicals, most of the 300 subjects between the ages of 13 and 17 could identify comic books, videogame instruction manuals and magazines such as Sports Illustrated and Cosmo. But shown a newspaper, the majority said they'd never seen one before and could not identify its purpose.
"Dude, I know that looks familiar," said participant Josh Zwybeck, 16, when shown a copy of the Orlando Sentinel. "I think I saw a homeless guy in the park sleeping under one."
"Some of the participants were even a little frightened by them," said the Poynter Institute's Dick Edmunton, who noted that several of the teenage girls "freaked out" and had to be calmed down when the ink came off on their hands.
Of the 20 percent who could identify the publication specifically as a "newspaper," the majority said they had seen one in a movie or on a television show, such as the '70s-set police drama Life On Mars that aired briefly a few years ago.
"That's how people would download their news back then," said Carla Fredricks, 15. "Or, you know, however it got to them."
When told that people, often young men, would bring them up and leave them on people's stoops, Fredericks said "Okaaaaaay," and then added, "You're shitting me, right?"
The report comes at a precarious time for the industry. Newspaper companies have been trying desperately to retain readers, doing everything from running provocative cartoons to pledging to print only pictures of attractive people.
"Nothing seems to work," said Edmunton, noting that "eventually papers are going to have to do something really drastic, like stop running long, boring stories about subjects nobody really cares about."
They'll certainly have to do something to attract young readers, who apparently have no interest or familiarity with the people putting out modern newspapers. For instance, New York Post gossip columnist Liz Smith, who made headlines after being laid off from the paper in 2009, was misidentified by the majority of the teenagers as "the villain from the second Pirates Of The Caribbean."
One positive finding from the report, though, is that when shown a newspaper and explained what it was for, many of the teenagers thought it was a "pretty cool" idea.
"It would be kind of neat having all those stories and things together in one place, so you could carry it around and stuff," said Luke Bertinelli, 16. "Plus, I'm pretty sure you could roll a joint with it if you really needed to."
- CAP News Staff