The Publishing Business and Convenient Statistics

Some say give credit to Mark Twain for saying there were three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics.

http://printinthemix.com/fastfacts/show/403

On a website called Print in the Mix - A Clearinghouse of Research on Print Media Effectiveness, it is proclaimed that "Community Newspapers Continue to Show Strong Readership". I grew up in a small town, and weekly got the Messenger/Star-Forum to peruse. More on that, later.

There is a weekly community paper in my metropolitan area, and it likely covers 30,000 people. With an unscientific observation, the most readership it gets is the search for the 2-for1 coupon for The Prairie House restaurant.

Here are the leading points from the survey:

The early data indicate that the positive findings are consistent with the earlier surveys:

• 73 percent of those surveyed read a community newspaper each week.

• Those readers, on average, share their paper with 3.34 persons.

• They spend about 37.5 minutes reading their local newspapers.

• 78 percent read most or all of their community newspapers.

• 41 percent keep their community newspapers six or more days (shelf life).

• 62 percent of readers read local news very often in their community newspapers, while 54 percent say they never read local news online (only 9 percent say they read local news very often online).

What this study is intended to convey is that local community newspapers are healthy, thank-you-very-much. What it misses is found in the very small print at the bottom:

• interviews completed with residents that lived in areas where the local newspapers had a circulation of 8,000 or less
• the number of non-daily newspapers that have a functional website serving small towns and cities may be lower than that of daily newspapers
• the average age of the 2010 respondents (51.2)

It is very possible that most or all of the members of the "research arm of the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism" have never lived in a small town with a weekly newspaper. I have.

What are the dominant items in a weekly like the Messenger/Star-Forum ? Pictures. Photos of folks in town, winning awards and having events. Personal news of graduations and weddings. A little local news about the government. New business openings are there, but never the closings unless it's the big factory. It is a rare small paper that has a good online version of the weekly publication; it is hard enough to get the paper out on time with the limited advertising of a small town.

Where else do you see this same stuff? Facebook! The average age surveyed was over 50, meaning that half the folks are 50 and over. I would be very curious about the results for 39 and younger.

Advertise in the local paper, but do it soon, and aim for the 50+ crowd. The rest of the audience is going elsewhere and fast.