Election: More Than 50% Voters Used Internet for Election News

From NYT:

Researchers have now confirmed what was evident to most political campaigns last year — more than half of the voting-age public used the Internet last year to find out about, write about and comment on the presidential election.

Is this a surprise? Pew says that 85% of adults are online. Are they getting their news from the teevee or are they getting their news when they log on at work or home?

It's all online now.

Any ideas about how the online media helped or hindered education about the election? Hit me up in comments.

Top 10 Online Newspapers: Traffic +16% Since Last Year

Nielsen-Online (PDF):

New York, NY – January 26, 2008 – Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, today reported a 16 percent year-over-year increase in unique visitors to the top 10 newspaper Web sites, growing from 34.6 million unique visitors in December 2007 to 40.1 million in December 2008.

NYTimes.com was the number one online newspaper destination in December 2008, with 18.2 million unique visitors. USATODAY.com and washingtonpost.com took the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, with 11.4 million and 9.5 million unique visitors, respectively

This article points to several different trends we've been seeing. More and more people are using the internet to get not just their news, but all information. More people are switching from print to online content in the way in which they get their news (which is why we see newspapers folding (hehe) everywhere. And even in this economy, companies all over the world are moving advertising dollars to online outlets, whether it is Google Adwords or site-specific adverts.

It's not just that it's good to be in the web business in this economy. The economic environment is serving as a catalyst for a move already in progress and when conditions improve, all these companies will be more than reluctant to return to an already-floundering print world.

Internet wins. I guess paper still beats rock.