Who reads newspapers?

Newspaper at a resident's door

Newspaper at a resident's door

Newspaper at a resident's door

Newspaper at the front door

I visited by 88-year old mother-in-law recently in her "age in place" facility. In the morning, as I walked down the corridor, I noted that almost every apartment had a newspaper at the front door.

Newspapers in the lobby

The management also provides at least seven newspapers for residents. (The Globe and Mail was already in use.)

When I speak to my college students about newspapers I often get a blank stare. It seems that those under 25 rarely read newspapers, and the newspapers they read are often the free 24 and Metro, and alternative newspapers such as Vancouver's Georgia Straight and Toronto's Now.

But for broadsheets, such as The Globe and Mail, The National Post, and The Vancouver Sun, survival seems to depend on the readers over 50. And as the readership greys and dies, the future of newspapers gets bleaker and bleaker.