| Less than a third of journalists are regular users
of the Internet. Supervisors are more likely to use the Net than reporters.
Minority groups are more likely to be plugged in than whites. Most journalists
believe the jury is out on online newspapers.
Another new issue on the 1996 survey was interest in the Internet. Thirty
percent of newsroom journalists say they are regularly using the Net, but
reporters are not leading the way in this regard. This is surprising, considering
the vast reporting resources available on the Internet. Newsroom supervisors,
editorial writers, photographers and artists are more likely to be the
regular ''Netizens'' than reporters or copy editors. While 30 percent of
the overall workforce now use the Net regularly, 26 percent consider themselves
''keenly interested'' beginners, which translates to a probable majority
who will shortly be on the Net regularly.
There seems to be a generation gap regarding the Internet. Only 36 percent
of the over-50s rate themselves as either regular users or ''keenly interested''
beginners on the Net, whereas 59 percent of the younger groups choose one
of those categories. Of the over-50s, 45 percent never use the Internet
(compared with 29 percent of those under 50).
Another predictable difference is that 71 percent of the 30-and-under
group are either regularly using the Net or keenly interested, whereas
only 52 percent of the over-30 groups select those two categories. And
43 percent of the young group see a ''promising'' future for newspapers
on the Net, whereas 28 percent of the over-30s would agree.
Men are surfing the Net with greater frequency than women, but that
gap seems likely to close soon. Men report ''regular'' use of the Internet
more frequently than women, but women are more likely to say they are ''just
beginning to experiment with the Internet but keenly interested.''
Sixty-three percent of the sample report that their paper is publishing
on the Net, with the answer depending heavily on the circulation size of
the respondent's paper. The larger the paper, the more likely it is online.
Not many journalists seem optimistic about the future of newspapers
on the Internet. Thirty percent consider it to be ''bright and promising,''
while 61 percent choose ''It's yet to be demonstrated just how much prospect
there is for newspapers on the Internet.'' Eight percent dismiss the Net
as a viable prospect. As we might expect, the youngest journalists are
the most optimistic and the oldest group is the most bearish. Whereas one-third
of the under-50s see newspapers' future on the Internet as ''promising,''
14 percent of the over-50s share that optimism.
Among work groups, it is again the photographers and artists, not the
reporters, who are most likely to see a bright future for papers on the
Net. Blacks are also more likely than any other ethnic group (including
whites) to see newspapers' future on the Net as bright and promising. | 
