I did! I was a paperboy, dear god did that teach me about how trashy newspapers are and the shocking amount of people that read the very worst (The Daily Mail was by FAR the most popular on my round).

It's the same with everything else in life no? The large number of people who watch trashy TV, the large number of people who eat fast food, etc. Principle of least effort and all that.

The percent of teenagers and young adults reading online news is on the rise, though

... as long as the article has not more than about 3-5 paragraphs. I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist.

We have plenty of news. What seems to have gone missing in online news in general is deepened analysis. So, these youngsters sure have heard of all the news - but do they really get all the information needed to really understand what they heard of?

Personally, I have never heard of a "letter to the editor" that complains about a too long article in print. This is something I first saw and now frequently see on the Internet.

Fair enough, though it's worth noting that letters to the editor are carefully selected and edited while comments usually aren't.

I bet the New Yorker gets letters complaining about the length of its articles every month, they just don't subject their readers to them.