Local papers not particularly loved
A sizeable proportion of the public wouldn’t particularly care if their local newspaper closed, a new report suggests.
According to the Pew Research Center in the US, only 33% of people said they would miss their local paper “a lot” if it went, while 25% said they would miss it “some”. The report said that 16% would miss it “not much” and 26% “not at all”.
Among youg people, the numbers are even worse for newspapers – among 18 to 39-year-olds, only 23% said they would miss it a lot and 29% said they would miss it some. The other 48% would miss it not much or not at all.
However, when it comes to local news, traditional media still dominates, said the same survey. TV was listed as a regular source of local news by 66%; newspapers by 41%; radio by 34% and the Internet by 31%.
The results came from a telephone study of about 1000 Amercian adults.
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how about Australians?
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Hi Andrew,
I’m not aware of an Australian survey asking the same questions. But every now and then I get the chance of piggy-backing on a survey. If so, I’ll ask this question.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
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I was only wondering about this the other day. My favourite section of the local newspaper when I was a kid growing up in the burbs was the adult services section. Fuelled my imagination.
Of course, the big success story in newspapers over the past few years has been the MX paper that’s given out in train stations.
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For an Australian perspective, the Engaging Communities research project recently conducted by The Leading Edge found that 70.6% of Australians agreed or strongly agreed they would miss their local newspaper if it wasn’t there.
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anyone out there want to buy a local paper?
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