According to numbers collecting during the 2010 United States Census, the population of Rochester, New York was 210,565. Although the number of residents living in Rochester has been steadily decreasing for more than 50 years, the most recent population estimates reported in Rochester New York newspapers shows a slight increase between 2010 and 2013.

Despite the rapid growth of the internet over the past decade and a half, many Rochester residents still choose to turn to the leading Rochester newspapers for the latest Rochester local news. In fact, citizens who no longer subscribe to the print versions of Rochester New York newspapers, many of them still depend on their digital counterparts.

The popularity of online newspapers are an interesting trend that has occurred in response to the increasing popularity of local and national news websites and news blogs. Although it is foolish, if not impossible, to downplay the impact the multitude of online news sources have had on our news reading habits, digital versions of well-known print newspapers still seem to have an intangible edge over their purely online competitors.

This edge has a lot to do with credibility. After all, are you more likely to believe what you read in the online version of a print newspaper that has been around for nearly a century and a half, or a news blog that some young, unknown whipper snapper started up in 2011? Likewise, academics who demand facts culled from legitimate sources will always view the New York Times more credible than some fly-by-night news blog.

When internet news websites started popping up after the advent of the internet, many people thought that this marked the end of America’s leading print newspapers. On the contrary, this declaration of obsolescence was clearly premature. While newsprint subscriptions have clearly decreased over the past decade the leading print newspapers have made smooth transitions onto the Web. The bottom line is that the format may be changing, but the trusted names in local and national still enjoy a level of credibility that new, online news sources are far from achieving.