Despite the seemingly insurmountable challenges facing today’s newspapers, nearly three-fourths of American adults still admit to reading either a print or online edition, according to (pdf) the latest Integrated Newspaper Audience study from Scarborough Research.

In addition to the 74% of the general population of US adults who read the the newspaper, readership is even higher among more affluent and educated adults:

• 79% of adults in white-collar jobs read a newspaper in print or online.
• 82% of adults with household incomes of $100K+ per year read printed or online newspaper content.
• 84% of college graduates or those with advanced degrees read content from either the print or online version of a newspaper each week.

Good News for Online Newspapers

In more positive news for newspapers in the online space, a separate study from Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America recently showed that, between 2005 and 2009, unique visitors to newspaper websites grew from a monthly average of 41.1 million to an average of 71.8 million. During the same period, print revenues plummeted from $22.2 billion in 2005 to $12.2 billion in the first half of this year, down 45%.