While it doesn’t really take a poll to determine that anywhere in the U.S. print as a news source is in decline, or that more and more people are using the Internet to get their news, the surprise is that TV is holding its number one spot in this category. In Florida, that is. PR firm Ron Sachs Communications hired Mason-Dixon Polling & Research to conduct a survey of 625 Floridians in November. Ron Sachs graciously shared the survey with AIM Group.

Thirty-two percent of Florida residents 65 or older named newspapers as their primary news source; 79 percent of seniors said they read a newspaper every day. Of all respondents, 20 percent still considered a newspaper as their primary source of news. Only 10.7 percent of those 18-34 picked newspapers as their top news choice.  Nothing surprising here, except perhaps that the percentage of young people turning to newspapers first is as high as it is.

For 28 percent of young Floridians,  media Web sites are their primary source for news, compared to just 9 percent of seniors. Overall, 16 percent of respondents said Web sites were their primary source for news. What the survey does not determine because it was not asked, is which media sites are visited. We wonder if newspaper sites are not included here.

Television, however, remains the largest media source for Floridians in all age categories, with 56 percent of respondents overall rating it as their primary source for news. Fifty-four percent of seniors, 60 percent of those aged 50 to 64, 58 percent of those aged 35 to 49, and 52 percent of young Floridians rated television their primary news source. Radio was top news choice for 6 percent of respondents. Fewer than one percent got their news alerts delivered to their smart phones.

“This poll illustrates that while online news sources are steadily replacing newsprint as the primary news source for a significant portion of our population, television is still king of media,” said Michelle Ubben, COO and Partner at Ron Sachs Communications, in the report. “Moreover, its reign appears likely to last several more decades as its dominance spans all age groups.”

Social media was studied as well. Thirty percent of respondents said they have a Facebook page, including 11 percent of seniors. More than half of them visited  their page at least once a day, primarily for personal reasons rather than business networking.  While 28 percent of those surveyed said they have used YouTube, only 4 percent have used  LinkedIn, 3 percent have used Twitter, and 2 percent have used Flickr. It might not be too much of a leap to surmise that LinkedIn, Twitter and Flickr are used more by business networkers and that Floridians are more focused on “personal” online conversation resources such as Facebook.