Ad Age is getting a bit too happy over a survey from Jupiter Research on how people get news and information. They start their story with an anecdote:

Digital properties may be VC darlings, hot on Wall Street and coveted by advertisers. But try telling that to Dave and The podcasts, RSS feeds and blogs that so engage the daily time and energies of the leading-edge digerati are alien or unknown concepts for most of the U.S. adult population. Jean Bretzlauf, 57-year-old accountants in a well-to-do-suburb of Denver. Dave has an iPod but no idea what a podcast is. Neither is familiar with RSS. And while they read the online versions of their local papers, they also subscribe to Rocky Mountain News and several magazines -- Reader's Digest and women's mags for Jean, financial and sports rags for Dave. They catch the morning news and never miss their favorite prime-time TV shows. And they've never logged on to watch online

The fact that they read news online is telling. There's been more than one story broken by bloggers that's leaked back into mainstream sources - consider the Rathergate saga or Trent Lott's difficulties, for instance. On the non-political side, consider "Dell Hell". The thing is, the blogosphere is influencing stories that get into major media - which means that PR and advertising people need to pay attention to it (even if their audience does not directly do so).

As I mentioned this morning, many of the influencers are blogging and podcasting. Those are exactly the people that Ad Age's readers want to talk to.

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