According to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, the Internet has now surpassed all other media except television as an outlet for national and international news. Currently, 40% of the survey respondents say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the internet, up from just 24% in September 2007. For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers. Television continues to be cited most frequently as a main source for national and international news.

The Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) and Anderson Analytics, in its second annual survey of Top Marketing Trends for 2009, report that marketing executives are going back to basics this year, putting renewed focus on satisfying and retaining customers and investing in research and insights, but are sick of hearing about Web 2.0. Marketers expressed concern on how a recession would impact priorities moving forward, and half of the executives believe their marketing budgets will decrease in 2009, while 56% indicated their staffing plans will either stay the same or increase.

According to a recent Gallop Poll, Americans' frequent use of the Internet has almost doubled over the last five years; 48% now report using the Internet more than one hour per day compared to 26% in 2002. Post-graduates, those making more than $75,000 per year, and those under age 30 are the most frequent users of the Internet, with more than 6 out of 10 in each group saying they use the Internet more than one hour per day.

According to the results of nationwide research from retail analytics firm Precima, groceries are the top item on which U.S. consumers are spending their savings from lower gas prices, ahead of putting the money in savings, holiday gift buying and paying off credit cards. Among those survey respondents who said they've suffered a direct financial loss during the recession, 55% said they're spending gas savings on groceries, and for those whose annual income is under $35,000 the number is 59%.

According to Compete's latest Retail blog, including details about "peaking" holiday shopping this year, 2007 saw four distinct purchase peaks during the holiday shopping season, all of which were relatively close to each other in terms of volume. This holiday season, 2008, no other single day could match the activity of Cyber Monday and Black Friday. Across this group of 10 major retailers,* Cyber Monday had at least 25% more people make a purchase online than the next closest day in December. Few have heard about "Green Monday," says the report, which is designated as the 2nd Monday of December, …

Nielsen Online, studying the holiday mindset of the U.S. online shopper, found that customer reviews are an important research tool for online consumers, with 71 percent agreeing that consumer reviews make them more comfortable that they are buying the right product. 81 percent of online shoppers have read product or retailer reviews by other customers when doing their holiday shopping this year.

According to new data from Mediamark Research & Intelligence, (MRI), downloading TV programs, watching online videos and making online phone calls posted the biggest year-to-year percent increase among adult Internet users. E-mail, news gathering, and paying bills online continue to be among the most widely used Internet activities by U.S. consumers ages 18+.

Trends in online spending outperformed offline in several key product categories, says comScore in new spending data by category for the online holiday shopping season. Comparing e-commerce data to overall (online and offline) consumer spending data published by MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse for the periods Nov. 1 - Dec. 24 vs. year ago, several product categories Online outperformed overall consumer spending

According to the Leichtman Research Group, the twenty largest cable and telephone providers in the US, representing about 94% of the market, acquired approximately 1.3 million net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in the third quarter of 2008. These top broadband providers now account for nearly 66.7 million subscribers. Cable companies have 36.5 million broadband subscribers, and telephone companies have about 30.2 million subscribers.

According to 12 months of proprietary Specific Media Ad Effectiveness data, by comScore, display advertising significantly lifts Online search activity. The study demonstrates that consumers exposed to display advertising were more likely to search for brand terms (i.e. automotive manufacturer), and segment terms (i.e. vehicle class), than unexposed consumers.