Many in the newspaper industry see Facebook, Myspace and other social networking sites as competitors for reader time.  The theory being that leisure time that young people chatting with each other  eats into the time available for newspaper reading…

Contrary to common fears in the news business, Youth Media DNA found that the social networking phenomenon does not appear to be a significant threat to the relationships young people have with newspapers. In fact, social networking users are higher all-around consumers of news media, display just as much interest in news, and are more likely to have favourable opinions of newspaper content. In the U.S., for example, those who use social networking sites are equally likely to say they regularly use a paid newspaper. In all countries, regular social network users are far more likely to describe paid newspapers credible as sources of news, and just as likely to feel a paid newspaper contains information relevant to their lives.