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Community newspapers still popular sources of information Community newspapers continue to inform and empower citizens along "Main Street America," a new survey by the National Newspaper Association found. In contrast to reports that suggest newspaper readership is declining, the study found readership of community newspapers up slightly, from 81 percent in 2005 to 83 percent in 2007. "We know community newspapers have a different story to tell than some of the big dailies," says Steve Haynes, president of NNA and of Haynes Publishing Co. in Oberlin, Kan. "NNA initiated this research two years ago with the help of the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism. We felt it important to revisit and update the data to see if our initial findings held up, and they have." According to the recent NNA survey, conducted by the Center for Advanced Social Research at the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia: • 83 percent of adults over the age of 18 read a newspaper every week, virtually the same as reported in NNA's 2005 survey. • 73 percent of those readers share their paper with friends, colleagues or family members (more than doubling the number of people who see the paper), the same as reported in 2005. • On average, readers spend 41.8 minutes reading an issue of their paper, an increase of nearly four minutes from the 2005 survey. • Nearly one-third of readers keep their paper for more than six days, enabling them to revisit a story or advertisement at their leisure. NNA's Executive Director Brian Steffens said that the well-publicized decline of large metro-area daily newspapers does not reflect the community newspapers of Smalltown American. "Part of the problem with reporting on the health and welfare of the newspaper industry is that virtually all of the previous research has been focused on large daily newspapers serving the top 100 markets. There are more than 1,400 daily newspapers and about 8,000 non-daily community newspapers across America. The top 100 do not tell the whole story," Steffens explained. Newspapers dominate 2-to-1 To capture a snapshot of readership along Main Street America, NNA surveyed adults in markets of less than 25,000 population to examine the relationship between Main Street America and newspapers. According to the 2007 NNA survey, local community newspapers are the primary source of information for both news and advertising in local communities- by a 2-to-1 margin over the next most popular media. Main sources of information Primary source of information about local communities: • 45.3 percent: local newspaper • 20.6 percent: television • 5.7 percent: radio • 3.5 percent: Internet (The rest say they get their local information from friends, relatives, co-workers, "others", or they "don't know.") Readers told NNA their preferred source of information about local communities: • 46.9 percent: local newspaper • 18.6 percent: television • 5.7 percent: radio • 4.6 percent: Internet The findings also note: • 99 percent of readers read local news, up from 95 percent in 2005. • 64 percent read local news "very often", up 15 percent from 2005. • 92 percent read education (school) news, the same as in 2005. • 94 percent read state government news; up from 91 percent in 2005. • 89 percent read editorials and-or letters to the editor, up slightly from 2005. • 77 percent read local sports, virtually identical to 2005. • 72 percent read public notices, nearly identical to 2005. Rated high for coverage, accuracy These are the bread and butter topics of community newspapers. But how well do community newspapers perform these functions? • 76 percent of readers believe their local news coverage is good to excellent, almost identical to 2005. • 70 percent believe the accuracy of their community newspaper is good to excellent, up slightly from 2005. • 67 percent believe the quality of writing in their community newspaper is good to excellent, a slight increase from 2005. • 62 percent believe the fairness of reporting is good to excellent, an increase of 4 percentage points from 2005. "While there is room for improvement, it should be noted that these were rated on a fivepoint scale, with the middle being fair or acceptable," Steffens said. "Adding fair or acceptable to these numbers would push them up even more dramatically." This survey was conducted by the Center for Advanced Social Research (CASR), Missouri School of Journalism, University of Missouri- Columbia for the National Newspaper Association. Established in 1885, the National Newspaper Association is the voice of America's community newspapers and the oldest and largest newspaper association in the country. The nation's community newspapers inform, educate and entertain more than 60 million readers every week.
Founded in 1908, the Missouri School of Journalism has helped set the standards for journalism and strategic communication training for almost a century.
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