It's a growing worry in the news business -- how to arrest, maybe even reverse, the decades-long pattern in which generation after generation of younger Americans have paid decreasing attention to the news.

David T. Z. Mindich, a former television journalist and now a journalism professor and media critic, argues persuasively and passionately in a new book that much more than profit margins is at stake.

In "Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News," Mindich asserts that declining attention to serious journalism about serious issues is intimately linked to declining levels of civic engagement and political interest. With succeeding generations paying less attention to governmental and political news, "our democracy is in big, big trouble," he warns.

"If researching and writing this book has taught me one thing it is that our democracy is on the brink of a crisis and that the problem will not right itself," Mindich concludes. "Nearing the time when 20- and 30-somethings will be given the tiller of the ship of state, we and they might ask, are they informed enough for the journey?"

Formerly an assignment editor for CNN, Mindich is chair of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department at Saint Michael's College in Vermont. In "Tuned Out," he weaves his own findings and observations in with statistics and sociological conclusions from other researchers to portray a troubling situation.

Shrinking interest in serious news and public affairs has accompanied a growing availability and consumption of entertainment options -- and journalism that increasingly incorporates entertainment values.

Much of this material will be familiar, at least at the basic level, to journalists who follow the travails of the news industry even peripherally. Still, it's useful to have the comprehensive, if bleak, picture assembled by a skillful writer such as Mindich.

The special contribution of "Tuned Out" lies in Mindich's accounts of his own interviews with young people across the country and his thought-provoking recommendations for addressing the crisis that he believes is looming.

Probably the most useful observations stemming from his interviews involve discoveries about the reasons that some young people do follow the news closely.

A few examples: For some of these avid news consumers, they follow the news because they're part of a community where news knowledge is prized. Some keep up with serious news because they learn information they can use in conversation with news-consuming friends. For others, knowing about current events and important issues is important in their work.

Among the most encouraging interviews Mindich conducted were at a Catholic middle school in New Orleans that serves African-American boys from low-income families. Most of these students were "closely engaged in news and politics," he discovered, along with possible explanations involving various class projects.

One eighth-grader surprised Mindich by revealing that he reads The New York Times online. The reason? He gets email alerts from the newspaper that started when he signed up on The Times website for a class project during sixth grade.

"One of the simplest ways to get young people interested in news is to introduce them to the news habit and hope that it sticks," Mindich observes. "It often does.”

He is scornful, however, of the pandering by news managers to rev up interest among the tuned-out young.

Regarding the Chicago Tribune's "evil spawn," the breezy youth-oriented tabloid called RedEye, he witheringly concludes: "It is not hard to imagine what RedEye thinks about its young readers: that they are not citizens but spoiled, selfish, insatiable consumers wanting TV, fun entertainment, food, and titillation."

Mindich's recommended solutions for getting the tuned-out young to tune in again to serious news involves far-reaching media and governmental reforms. Ideally, these recommendations would serve as a springboard for a wide-reaching dialogue.

Some of his proposals may seem a long way from realization -- for instance, diversifying newspaper and broadcast ownership by including "legislation that makes it more difficult for major national corporations to edge out smaller ones."

And even some seemingly less ambitious recommendations could prove to be a hard sell -- things like making news literacy a prerequisite for high school honor society membership, including a current events quiz in the SAT, and requiring news portals on computers, and news options from Internet Service Providers.

Mindich believes, however, and argues compellingly that the stakes for American democracy are so high that they warrant a challenging and idealistic blueprint for action. Here's hoping that media owners and political leaders pay heed.