Web driving growth for news consumption

More Americans got their news from the Internet than from newspapers in 2010 for the first time, leaving the Web trailing only TV as the most popular source of news for the American public.

According to the Pew Research Center's annual report on the state of the media, 41 percent of Americans said the Internet is where they get "most of their news about national and international issues" in December, up from 17 percent a year earlier.

In addition, almost half (47 percent) of respondents now get some form of news on a mobile device and 7 percent reported owning some form of tablet.

The audience for cable news declined 13.7 percent, with channels hit especially hard in primetime, with a 16 percent decline. CNN led the way with primetime viewership plunging 37 percent, followed by sister channel HLN dropping 17 percent.

Fox News viewership dipped 11 percent, while MSNBC did the least badly with an audience decrease of just 5 percent.