A new poll shows 'old media' holding their own in an Internet world

With news and gossip leaping off every laptop screen, smartphone and Facebook page, the common wisdom these days is that traditional news outlets are doomed. But a funny thing happened on the way to the funeral: People are spending more time following the news, rather than giving in to other distractions.

Traditional media are holding onto mindshare: A new Pew Research Center study says that on a given day, Americans spend 57 minutes getting the news from television, newspapers or radio, just as they did in 2000. But they spend an additional 13 minutes each day consuming news on the Web -- a figure that doesn't even include stories viewed on cellphones. Highly educated folks, not surprisingly, are driving the increase. Not everyone is an addict; 17 percent of those surveyed said they got no news of any kind the previous day. But the 83 percent who did are drawing their information from a wider variety of sources.