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Community Newspapers Continue to Show Strong Readership

Readers also say they read most or all of their community newspapers (78 percent), and of those going online for local news, 55 percent found it on the local newspaper’s website, compared to 17 percent for sites such as Yahoo, MSN or Google, and 26 percent for the website of a local TV station.

The National Newspaper Association survey examines the patterns of community newspaper readership, and is conducted for the NNA by the research arm of the Reynolds Journalism Institute  at the Missouri School of Journalism.

The early data indicate that the positive findings are consistent with the earlier surveys:

• Those readers, on average, share their paper with 3.34 persons.

• They spend about 37.5 minutes reading their local newspapers.

• 78 percent read most or all of their community newspapers.

• 41 percent keep their community newspapers six or more days (shelf life).

• 62 percent of readers read local news very often in their community newspapers, while 54 percent say they never read local news online (only 9 percent say they read local news very often online).

• 75 percent think governments should be required to publish public notices in newspapers, with 23 percent reading public notices very often in their newspapers.

• 71 percent have Internet access in the home, but 66 percent never visit a website of a local government.

• Of those with Internet access at home, 89 percent have broadband access.

The local community newspaper is the primary source of information about the local community for 49.3 percent of respondents. The next best source are friends and relatives for 18 percent of respondents and TV, 16 percent. Readers are nearly seven times more likely to get their local news from their community newspapers than from the Internet (7.7 percent). Less than 6 percent say their primary local news source is radio.