While news consumption is generally ruled by routine, consumers are customizing how and where they get their information based on lifestyle preferences and how much they value the content. We've identified five distinct segments of the American news consumer.

In the past five years, the phrase "news junkie," has been creeping up on me, and for the first time I realize I may be hooked, and the scary fact is -- we may all be.

I believe in the power of social media for spreading news, sharing ideas and having conversations. But for all of us who use social media, it is incumbent upon us to balance speed with common sense and sound judgment.

With information as abundant and instantaneous as it is, what's valuable nowadays is the ability to distill that information and interpret it.

By framing everything as a fight, media encourages all of us to be combative in our interactions. To gain press coverage and political advantage, candidates take the bait. The result of this downward spiral is evident in the divisive politics of today.

I want to track a story as it develops, I certainly won't be looking at the print edition of anything, and, once the long-threatened paywall goes up, I won't be getting my updates from nytimes.com.

All end-of-year lookbacks at the major stories, scandals, dramas and traumas contain one shared ingredient, one bizarre commonality built straight into their media DNA: How insanely fast we forget all about them.

This administration had always billed itself as driven by facts and not the talking-head news cycle. And when it came to the science and the Gulf, they should have been a little more circumspect.