Online or off, local or national, news consumers don’t believe half of what they hear or read. Nonetheless, they still retain a favorable attitude toward the media and appreciate that most media outlets provide timely and objective information on a wide range of topics.

By wide margins, more Americans give favorable than give unfavorable ratings to their daily newspapers (80% vs. 20%), local TV news (79% vs. 21%) and cable TV news networks (79% vs. 21%), according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

At the same time, growing numbers of people claim to get their news online. One-third of people say they rely on the Internet for news, as do 27% of people in their 40s and 25% of people in their 50s.

However, the sites they are visiting for news, for the most part, are online versions of the mainstream press.

These readers choose online news sources for the convenience, not because most news sites are free for the viewing—although many charge to download articles for printing. And most people who read newspapers online daily are also reading the corresponding print versions more often than they did before they began consuming news online.

All that suggests that there is opportunity for marketers to do crossover promotional campaigns and that the death of mass-media advertising was prematurely predicted. People still do consume news on a daily basis.

Furthermore, the daily news habit is particularly ingrained among middle-aged, highly educated, well-paid workers. That means companies making and selling big-ticket items know just where to go to find their target market.