Schumer: 'Hardly Anyone' Reads Time, Newsweek

     Need more evidence the old-time mainstream media are becoming relics?

     New York’s senior Democratic senator, Charles Schumer, told an audience the evolution of the modern Democratic Party and its success with young voters can be traced to the party’s adaptations to the death of older news sources like the national news and weekly news magazines.

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     “Politics has become more accessible to young people,” Schumer said. “They didn’t really get into TV news the way my generation did. You know, when I was younger, the national news was sort of the national living room. That is not even close to true. Everyone read Time magazine or Newsweek. Hardly anyone does anymore.”

     The second-term senator credited specifically bloggers and the Internet for early successes in the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. [2]According to U.S. News and World Report, from January 3 (day of the Iowa caucuses) to February 5 (Super Tuesday), 19.1 million Americans cast a ballot in a Democratic primary (or caucused as a Democrat) versus just 13.1 million on the Republican side in all the nominating contests.

     “Instead things are more fractured, but the bloggers and the Internet has sort of become the medium of choice,” Schumer said. “And it’s gotten young people involved and excited in politics.”

     Schumer was promoting his book, [3]“Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time” at a Borders bookstore in Washington, D.C. He told the audience things are different than in 2004, when Howard Dean enjoyed early successes in the race for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.

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     “But I think it’s different this time,” Schumer said. “I think the Internet is much deeper and more pervasive. Howard Dean used it – it was a brand new thing, ‘What is this?’ Now it’s part of the working world. Hillary’s raising a lot of money on the Internet too – not as much as Barack, but she still is. But to me, more the motivation of young people ultimately is, this world is a different world and we better get hold of it and I think that’s a great motivation.”

     Recently, an icon of the old media also pointed toward its demise. In December 2007, former “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw said he thought [5]The Washington Post would be completely digital by 2018.