Right, but FNC doesn't have tens of millions of viewers - which is closer to what traditional broadcast media has lost the last 20 years. FNC only has a few million viewers, and they still have far fewer viewers than the 6:30 newscasts.
The Networks aren't bleeding viewers to FNC, they're just bleeding viewers.
I know we'd like to think that this problem for the networks and the newspapers is content-based. It's not (at least it's not that much). It's demographics. As the loyal network and newspaper viewers age (and die off) they're not being replenished by the younger viewer.
Couric has just over 6 million viewers per night, which is not that far removed from O’Reilley’s 4 million viewers on a good night. Plus the 3 million that watch Beck at 5 pm, are not the same 3 million that watch O’Reilley at 8 pm. If you add up all the viewers for cable news throughout the day, it will probably trump the 6:30 newscasts from the networks. People don't feel the need to watch the network news at 6:30, in part because they have already watched the news on the cable news(mostly Fox) earlier in the day.
Is Fox news taking viewers from the networks? Of course.
Why do I call Faux News instead of using its standard spelling? Do I think the content is anywhere as conservative as I and many other people would like it to be? No. And this is reflected in their numbers, too, with the net result being lost viewership for everyone.
What this country needs is a news organizations created, run, and broadcast by conservatives for conservatives.
We are in the computer age and news will continue to be viewed more and more with computers. How it will be archived without the possibility of alterations to it (with the intention of re-writing history is going to be interesting.
All of the major news organizations have their own internet websites but now they have to compete with everyone else. The only things that will ultimately save them is their content and their ability to innovate.