Surprise: Twitter, Facebook not big news sources for Americans

The Pew Research Center’s latest report on the state of the news media said that audiences are hungry for more news but, at the same time, most of the news media experienced a decline in total revenue in 2011.

The nonprofit group released it's ninth annual State of the News Media 2012 report on Monday.

"A mounting body of evidence finds that the spread of mobile technology is adding to news consumption, strengthening the appeal of traditional news brands and even boosting reading of long-form journalism. But the evidence also shows that technology companies are strengthening their grip on who profits."

The study said the news industry wasn't much closer to a new revenue model than a year ago but that tech companies are profiting. Microsoft, Google, Facebook, AOL and Yahoo! generated 68 percent of digital ad revenues in 2011.

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Some surprising news: Pew researchers found Facebook and Twitter are now pathways to news, but their role may not be as large as some have suggested.

Only 9 percent of American adults "very often" click on news recommendations on Facebook or Twitter, according to the study, wrote NPR.

Some 36 percent of adults directly read stories at those news organizations, while 32 percent get news from internet searches, and 29 percent use an app or news aggregator.

The good news is that growing evidence suggests that news is becoming a "more important and pervasive part of people’s lives."

The Pew researchers said, in the end, that could be what saves the future of journalism.