I’m a newspaper guy at heart. Even though I abandoned the abject poverty of the newspaper business many years ago for the quasi-prosperous world of public relations and reputation management, I remain, at my core, a newspaper guy who loves the news.

This is why it is so painful for me to read of a study released by the Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism at the University of Southern California. The study reveals that newspapers have fallen below television and the Internet as primary sources of news among Internet users. Keep in mind that the study is not speaking only of the printed version of newspapers, but the newspaper websites as well. It is easy to understand why Internet users wouldn’t be all that interested in the printed version of the paper, but the fact that the online versions aren’t of much interest either is truly concerning.

It’s concerning because I’ve always viewed newspapers as journalism in its purest form. “How,” I would argue with friends who worked in television ‘news,’ “are you supposed to describe a 2,000-year-old, complex, geopolitical and religious conflict in the 30 – 45 seconds each story gets on the evening news?”

The argument being, of course, that you can’t. This is why I’ve always viewed newspapers—either printed or online—as the most sensible source for news. Newspapers have the ability to get into a level of detail television and radio can’t. A level of detail, I believe, the public needs.

None of this is particularly surprising. The demise of print journalism has been well-chronicled. “Ink-stained wretches,” as a J-school professor once referred to us in a twisted, but complimentary manner, are a dwindling breed.

I am, however, undeterred. I will continue to read the 10 – 15 metro dailies every day and march to my curb twice a day, once in the morning for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and again in the afternoon for the Waukesha Freeman.

Because I’m a newspaper guy, and always will be.