From Print In the Mix. Full story here

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.

I met Carter Strickland at the SNA conference in Kansas City. His company OurVarsity.com allows newspapers to repackage their local sports content on a unique website product. Seems like a good way to repurpose content already being generated by local publications. And since we like to talk about innovations in print and print related products, I asked him to write a few paragraphs on his company:

  "OurVarsity, an online content management system built to expand readership, maximize advertising and assist your high school/youth sports community, has been made available to the public after more than 18 months of development and testing.
  The OurVarsity platform, which was released in February 2009, is a valuable tool for newspaper to extend its reach without reaching for the checkbook. To date more than 50 newspapers across the country have partnered with OurVarsity including the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Red Wing Publishing and the Valdosta Daily Times.
  The OurVarsity platform delivers an integrated service to utilize and display newspaper content in concert with user-generated content. It is available at little or no cost to newspapers of all sizes and can take a newspaper’s current content and display it in a dynamic new platform that allows for more user interaction.
  Through an OurVarsity partnership an untapped audience can be captured with innovative online offerings such as social networking, viewing photos and videos, sharing music and YouTube videos, sending personal messages, posting a `Say It Now’ messages, signing up for text alerts and engaging in chats.

 For more information on OurVarsity please contact Carter Strickland at 706-201-5483 or carter@ourvarsity.com."