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Americans in needs of a quick news fix are continuing to turn in greater numbers to news web sites, according to Outsell's third annual news users' research project.

The survey predicts a continued steep drop in U.S. newspaper circulation as Americans continue to gravitate toward the Internet for news.

Outsell foresees a 3.5 percent annual drop in both daily and Sunday circulation, with readership dropping to 43 million for Sunday newspaper editions by 2012, compared to more than 62 million in the early 1990s.

For "news right now," 57 percent of news users now go to digital sources such as NewJerseyNewsroom.com, up from 33 percent a few years ago.

Outsell analyst Ken Doctor told MediaPost that "... Google's effect on the newspaper industry is particularly striking... Google is driving some traffic to newspapers... (but) also taking a significant share away... 44 percent of visitors to Google News scan headlines without accessing newspapers' individual sites."

Outsell found that as digital news media attracts readers with its immediacy, interactivity, and intrigue of the new, people are spending more time at the news site and less on newspapers.

According to a story on the MediaPost web site, the survey, in part, also found local news remains the domain of local companies. National topics are going both profoundly digital and national.

Some of the findings in the survey are:

• When readers want the briefing on the news, they turn in great numbers to online sites, reducing their use of traditional news sources, TV, newspapers, and radio.
• When news users wanted to know what was happening before they dashed off to work, they used to either switch on the TV or radio, or fetch the paper at the door, and give a quick read. Each of those behaviors has been reduced significantly in three years.
• Open-web aggregators now claim 19 percent of first-thing-in-the-day use; up from just 10 percent three years ago and now moving into a virtual tie with newspapers for second position, with TV's lead shrinking. Business, sports and political sites have markedly gained audience, moving from 4 percent to 7 percent.
• TV news dropped from 36 percent to 30 percent over three years, newspaper readership dropped from 23 percent to 19 percent, and radio news dropped from 20 percent to 15 percent.