CABLE NEWS: Turn Off, Tune Out:

Let’s start with the fact that cable audiences seem to be slowly but surely falling, particularly among younger viewers. There are sometimes quarterly gains, but overall, the trend is down. Fewer cable consumers means a smaller pool who might tune in CNN, MSNBC or Fox News.

People also have wildly more news sources than ever before. During the Rodney King riots on CNN 20 years ago, my whole dorm was glued to the television, because cable news was the only place you could find out what was happening in LA. During the Baltimore riots over the past month, I watched some cable, like many of you. (We boosted their ratings quite a bit.) But I could also listen to the Baltimore police scanner streaming online, get live tweets from people who were there, and read the live updates from the Baltimore Sun, which made its coverage available free. These sources told me more of what was happening, much more quickly, than cable news did; on the TV was yet another anchor remarking that people in Baltimore seemed very angry. I did watch a lot of footage of the riots that came from cable television cameras — but I watched much of it in streaming snippets, not from tuning into the television. When I did that, I did not watch any of their ads or help their ratings. This is a broad problem afflicting more than just the three major cable news networks: When was the last time you turned on the Weather Channel to find out whether it was going to rain today?

And then there’s the change in the way that people watch television. People are becoming more intentional in their viewing; instead of turning on the television to see what’s on, or planning their lives around being home on Sunday evenings at 8, they are seeking out exactly the content they want, at a time that is convenient for them. That means fewer people idly flipping through the channels. That means fewer people deciding to stop a minute to see what the talking heads have to say.

As Paul Farhi argues in the Washington Post, I think it’s going to get worse.

There’s also the fact that cable news is awful. When it’s not talking heads shouting at each other, it’s the same footage being repeated over and over, or stand-ups with people trying to make events seem more interesting than they are. Short term, this may have revved up audiences, but long-term, it’s a turnoff, and so people are turning off.