Debate Over Value of Newspapers Continues

Link to November 21 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article, "Newspapers remain a vital news source".

Excerpt: If you read Friday's Journal Sentinel or the story on jsonline.com, however, you saw some myth busting. To paraphrase Mark Twain, when you hear someone talk or read about the death of newspapers and their newsrooms, you can respond by saying that view is greatly exaggerated and provide the following facts:

Newspapers - in print and online - continue to reach a huge audience. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of U.S. adults, or more than 171 million people, read a newspaper in print or online during an average week, according to a new study by Scarborough Research.

Adults may still read newspapers, but how deep is their love?

Not very, according to a recent Pew Research poll, "Stop the Presses? Many Americans Wouldn't Care a Lot if Local Papers Folded".

Excerpt: 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.

Not unexpectedly, those who get local news regularly from newspapers are much more likely than those who read them less often to see the potential shutdown of a local paper as a significant loss.