Reports on the media habits of Millennials, those "digital natives", have given some the impression that young people never read newspapers. However, survey evidence stubbornly insists that they do.

For instance, the recent Pew State of the News Media study notes that 23% of people aged 18-24 reported reading a newspaper yesterday. As a Millennial myself, I was slightly skeptical. Were these 18-24 year olds just confused about what a newspaper is? Further evidence confirms the existence of young people looking to print: The New York Times reports that 10% of its hard copy subscribers are aged 18-24, which is on par with the 9% of this age cohort who subscribe digitally.

The Pew Research Center recently released their annual update on the State of the News Media.

Not surprisingly, the main theme is the continuing shift of news consumption to digital, particularly mobile, platforms. Americans are rapidly adopting smart phones and tablets and using them to access news content. Radio news did slightly increase audience and revenue (both up 1%), but most of radio's revenue growth was in digital platforms – a 15% increase in online and mobile. Pew reports that: "As many as 38% percent of Americans now listen to audio on digital devices each week, and that is projected to double by 2015, while interest in traditional radio...is on the decline."

Arbitron and Edison Research just released the 2012 edition of The Infinite Dial study. This marks the 14^th year and 20^th report in the series that "provide estimates of emerging digital platforms and their impact on media landscape."

Not surprisingly, this year the report focused energy on the precipitous increase in usage of mobile technology and social media. However, I was a bit surprised, to hear the contention that digital platforms are not eroding radio listening. Over 90% of persons age 12 or older do listen to radio on a weekly basis, but the amount of time spent listening to radio has been diminishing over time.

2011 was an exceptional year for news. Events overseas brought about dramatic change, such as the Arab Spring, the Tsunami in Japan, and the death of Bin Laden and Gaddafi. On the domestic side, there was the Giffords shooting in Arizona and seemingly multiple political battles and stalemates in the US Congress.

2011 was also arguably a transformational year in the way that people access the latest on major news events. Facebook feeds and Twitter updates have become a new competitor with more traditional news outlets. Still, traditional media such as television and radio remain the dominant source for the latest news and information. This week-by-week chart for 2011 shows how Arbitron's PPM measured the changes in Average Quarter-hour listening levels for NPR Newsmagazine stations in the top 25 markets. Not all major news events led to peaks in radio listening levels, but the year-high for NPR member stations stemmed around the Tsunami in Japan and the death of Bin Laden.

Ben Robins is the Research Manager for NPR Programming.

Before I fell into data analysis in graduate school, I never considered myself to be a "numbers person." High school Algebra was a blast, but in college I gravitated toward language and writing. English boasts an abundance of expressive synonyms, and I reveled in the sometimes subtle differences among them.

As a master's student in library and information science, I felt as if I were betraying books and words by focusing on research, but I soon discovered it wasn't all about numbers. Many surveys – including those we do at NPR – utilize open-ended questions to capture sentiments beyond the simplified "agree" or "disagree" statements. Such questions offer respondents a chance to explain their thoughts or reactions in greater detail, and often lead researchers to approach a subject from an angle they hadn't considered.