​Newspapers continue to erode in the United States, reaching record-low confidence rates in 2013.

​With newspaper companies experiencing financial troubles and watching their acceptance rates plummet, businesses are discovering the value of content marketing on the web. Brafton reported on an Edelman study that found overall trust in media increased 5 percent year-over-year in 2012. Search engines topped the list with 61 percent of Millennials favoring online content over traditional media outlets (59 percent).

A few months later, and a Gallup poll of 1,529 adults conducted between June 1, 2013 and June 4, 2013, found that only 25 percent of Americans express a great deal of confidence in newspaper content. This metric is down from 28 percent in 2011, and from 51 percent in 1979.

Surprisingly, Millennials expressed the greatest deal of confidence to Gallup, with 30 percent of them saying the offline publications will continue to influence news coverage in the foreseeable future. Americans aged 30 to 49 (22 percent) and 50 to 64 (17 percent) show the least amount of interest in newspapers.

While these publications didn’t receive overwhelming support from the American people, they still generated a higher confidence rate than Congress (10 percent) and big business (22 percent).

Either way, companies that want to build public presences and grow brand recognition should do so online, as web content and social media marketing can expand business’ reach much farther than newspapers. Developing a content marketing strategy that includes online press releases, regular blog content, social media updates and video posts can spread newsworthy information on the web and increase search discovery via Google and Bing.

Brands that traditionally relied on offline marketing channels for exposure shouldn’t delay moving to the internet for much longer – there’s too much money to be made online to still depend on offline media outlets for ROI.

Ted Karczewski is an Executive Communications Associate at Brafton. He works to develop his own voice and apply his passions to the evolving world of SEO and content marketing, but he doesn't shy away from writing for fun. After graduating from Suffolk University, Ted used his Communications degree to test out Sports Journalism before Marketing at Brafton.