Readership of editorial contents in local newspapers remained steady and solid and adults in small towns perceived their local newspapers valuable and practicing good journalism, according to the 2010 Community Newspaper Readership Study by the National Newspaper Association and The Reynolds Journalism Institute.
Consistent with its previous results in 2005, 2007-2009, the 2010 survey revealed that 73 percent of residents in small towns and cities across the United States read local newspapers ranging from 1 day to 7 days a week. Most of the readers (94%) paid for their papers, and more than two-thirds (78%) of respondents read most to all of the contents.
Readers spend an average of 37.5 minutes reading their local newspaper. Sixty-seven percent of readers would keep their papers for two days or more, enabling them to revisit a story or advertisement.
Eighty percent of respondents said that they and their families rely on local newspapers as the primary source to get news about their communities. Their preference shows that the biggest strength of a community newspaper is its focus on local news.
When asked to identify where to get news about local community, 50 percent of residents choose “local newspapers”. The next option is a distant second: television (16.3). Only 6.7 percent choose radio and 8.5 percent choose the Internet.
For this latest survey a new set of questions about the value of newspapers was added. Beyond the perception that local newspapers are informative and the primary news source, adults enjoyed reading their local newspaper. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they look forward to reading their local newspaper. About seven of every ten said local newspapers are entertaining and that they provide valuable local shopping and advertising information.
When asked how they value their newspaper in terms of accuracy, coverage of local news, quality of writing and fairness, more than two-thirds rated their local paper good to excellent: accuracy (70%), coverage of local news (73%), quality of writing (63%) and fairness of reporting (65%).
What do people expect to read the most? Local news.
Respondents reported that local news is the most popular item they look for and read in their local newspaper. Sixty-two percent say they read their local news "very often." Following news, the most popular content are editorials or letters to the editor (35%), local sports (30%), and public notices (23%).
Methodology
The 2010 Community Newspaper Readership Study was administered by the Center for Advanced Social Research (CASR) of The Reynolds Journalism Institute and Missouri's School of Journalism on behalf of the National Newspaper Association (NNA) in August and October 2010. Altogether, 670 telephone interviews were completed with adults aged 18 or older that lived in small communities where the local newspaper’s circulation was 8,000 or less in the United States. Therefore, the 2010 study focused more on non-daily newspaper readers than on daily readers. Eighty-six percent of the NNA membership are non-daily newspapers. In addition, cell phone number frame was included in the sample to adequately reflect the fact that more people are using cell phones for their daily communication in today’s new media environment. Of the 670 people surveyed, 51% were reached via cell phone numbers, and 49% through landline numbers; 34 percent of the sample were “cell phone only” cohort as defined by The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) in its 2008 and 2010 studies.
For more information about the survey report and research design, please contact Dr. Kenneth Fleming at flemingk@missouri.edu
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