Newspaper readership in South Korea is down, due to competition from the Internet and television, the Korea Press Foundation has announced, Monsters & Critics reported.

Three or four out of every 10 adults surveyed between May 3 and June 9 said they were newspaper subscribers, compared to seven out of every 10 saying they were regular newspaper readers in 1996, the KPF said Monday.

The survey of 5,000 adults also reported that a shift from print to Internet and TV usage is the main factor causing newspaper readership to decrease, M&C reported.

Meanwhile, adspend share appears to be up for online, and down for newspapers, with Web sites reporting receiving 17 percent of total advertising money spent by companies in Korea, and newspapers receiving a smaller share, according to M&C, however, a percentage was not given for newspapers.

Newspapers were ranked as the third most reliable information source by the KPF survey, after television and digital media, M&C reported.

“The poll comes at a time when Korean companies are often discouraged from putting their advertising money into conservative newspapers after these newspapers have become the targets of criticism from more liberal young people,” the report stated.