As many newspapers struggle to stay economically viable, fewer than half of Americans (43%) say that losing their local newspaper would hurt civic life in their community “a lot.” Even fewer (33%) say they would personally miss reading the local newspaper a lot if it were no longer available. Full Story »
Posted by Dan Kennedy
This study provides a snapshot of how poorly the public, ni various demographics, view local newspapers. Rather than focusing on what local issues readers seek out in their local newspapers, this article somewhat strangely veers off into what national news stories garner the greatest interest. I'm left wondering what a local news interest index would look like, and how closely local papers are attuned to that interest. The article seems to place blame on the failure of local newspapers at the feet of a disinterested readership. Which came first - the disinterested readership or the local newspapers who are little more than a wire feed?
This article points out a problem that seem to me to be the achilles heel of local newspapers without ever drawing that conclusion. The news interest Index is appears to be national in scope. Those stories are covered ad nauseam by 24 hour news channels, national papers and local press via the wires.