Hear It Now, See It Tonight, Read About It Tomorrow

Radio's greatest strength against IPod's, the internet and satellite radio: localism and immediacy.

Howard Christensen of Canada's Broadcast Dialogue reports: The number of online adults who prefer the Internet as their main source of news has grown by over 35% in the last four years – and this at the expense of TV and newspapers.

Market research firm Jupiter Research says more than 26% of online adults prefer the Internet for national and international news, up from 19% in 2001.

But the survey also shows that overall numbers using the Internet for daily news has stayed flat over the last few years, at about 50%. The number of online adults preferring to use the Internet for local news is also growing, but has yet to exceed 10%.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations says US newspaper circulation has experienced a 1.9% drop in daily readership and a 2.5% decline on Sundays over the last six months compared with the period a year ago. Analysts say it’s the largest circulation loss in more than a decade. The rate of decline has been 0.5% to 1% since newspaper circulation peaked in the mid-1980s.

Note to all voices prepping to talk on terrestial radio: there's a new basic which must be added to your tool kit - information. Does your audience trust that you know what's going on in their world right now?

There is only one way to be sure of that: talk about it, relate to it, with fresh point of view and interaction on the latest info which they care about affecting their life at this moment.