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Just in the past month, two major newspapers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Rocky Mountain News, have shut down, and another, the San Francisco Chronicle, could soon follow. Community papers across the country are suffering, resorting to layoffs and web-only publishing to cut costs and stay afloat. Yet outside the media community, it seems few people really care. That’s according to a study released last week by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, which finds that 42 percent of those polled would not miss their local paper if it shut down, and only 33 percent would miss it “a lot.” Fifty-four percent say that the closure of the local paper would hurt civic life some or not at all, and that may be because fewer than half those surveyed rely on newspapers for their news. Forty-one percent said they get news regularly from newspapers, compared to 66 percent for television. Among young people, newspaper usage is even lower, and they care even less if they disappear. Just 23 percent of those under 40 said they would miss their local paper if it folded. Carroll Doherty, associate director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, talks to Media Life about the role of newspapers in civic life, how they compare to television, and what readers think about their continuing financial woes.
What did you find most interesting or most surprising about the newspaper findings?
That while people do recognize that newspapers are important to civic life, fewer than half say the loss of their local paper would hurt their community “a lot.”
We had previously asked about whether people would miss their local paper if it were no longer available, so that finding was not particularly surprising.
Only one-third of respondents said they would miss their newspaper "a lot" if it folded. What does that say about the state of the industry?
It highlights the difficult challenges facing newspapers. What may be worse is that just 23 percent of those under age 40 say they would miss the paper a lot.
Why are young people so much less concerned about the closure of the local newspaper than older ones?
This closely tracks overall readership patterns. Young people are far less likely than older people to read newspapers. Online newspapers have helped closed that gap a little, but only a little.
Generally speaking, what's the main role that local newspapers play in people's lives? What do they look for from newspapers that they may not be getting elsewhere?
In 2006, we did a more detailed survey on why people read newspapers – the biggest factor was local news.
When we asked people about the sources they use for various types of news, 35 percent of regular newspaper readers said the subject that most interests them is local news. By contrast, just 20 percent of regular TV news viewers cited local news as the subject that most interests them.
How much more do people rely on local television than newspapers for news, and why?
In our most recent survey, 66 percent said they “regularly” get local news from newspapers versus 41 percent who regularly get local news from local TV.
Television has been the public’s main source for news for the past few decades. Our polling has shown that people who rely on TV news appreciate its ease and convenience and its timeliness.
There does seem to be a general awareness of newspapers' financial woes. Does that impact how readers see the newspaper as a vital resource?
People’s awareness of newspapers’ problems does affect their views about the impact of the loss of the local paper.
Fifty-one percent who have heard a lot about newspapers’ financial problems say the loss of a local paper would hurt civic life in their community a lot; that compares with 35 percent of those who have heard a little, and 30 percent of those who have heard nothing at all.
