Using the data base provided by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) through its literacy assessment of young adults, researchers probed the newspaper reading practices of 21-25 year olds. The 1985 survey used home interviews of 3,600 young adults in the 48 contiguous states, representative of the 21 million adults in this age bracket. The study examined the relationship of educational attainment to newspaper readership habits and the use of three primary communications media--television, books, and magazines; what young adults read; and how newspaper readership relates to the use of other media. Findings showed that (1) the level of education obtained by young adults was strongly related to how often they read newspapers; (2) daily readership was highest among males at 49%, compared to 41% for females; (3) the Northeast was the region with the highest daily readership in the country (54%); (4) more than 80% of young adults read news; (5) the highest percentage (85.8%) read content in the area of comics, television/movie listings, and classifieds; (6) young adults who reported reading news had a higher average reading proficiency than did those not reading news; and (7) neither television nor other print material compete, in any real sense, with newspaper readership. However, those who did not read news were more inclined to be heavy television watchers. (Three tables of data and four figures are included.) (MS)