Newspaper Public Attitudes - 2006 Annual Report

Last year we reported that one of the most significant shifts over the last few years is that newspapers are losing more readers during major news events and are not pulling them back once the events wind down. Survey research on Americans’ media preferences during 2005’s biggest media event, Hurricane Katrina, suggests that the trend may be accelerating.

Television not only captures the drama of events like wars and abandoned people on rooftops but also provides a news anchor whose narration evokes the therapeutic lore of the storytelling that once occurred around the campfire. Television has been America ’s most popular news medium during major national events for generations. Perhaps the most illustrative example was JFK’s funeral in 1963, when 93% of televisions in the country were tuned in to the coverage.

With the increase in television audience comes, logically, a decrease for other news platforms, especially newspapers. For example, immediately before September 11, 45% said newspapers were their main source of news; by mid-September, the number had plummeted to 11%.

The pattern was repeated with Katrina in 2005. Newspapers were the top news source for 44% before Katrina and for 35% during the events, even though single-copy sales and readership surged.13 Moreover, many readers, both local and from around the country, visited NOLA.com, the New Orleans Web site, as the crisis unfolded.

But unlike the pattern in previous years, the post-Katrina newspaper audience failed to make up much ground after the news of the storm had generally fallen off the national radar. On other occasions, the gap between the number of Americans who said newspapers were their main news source before and after the events was around three points. And in 2003, the number actually increased a few points several months after the fall of Saddam’s government. But two months after Katrina, the difference was 8%.14 Whether newspapers can increase their audience share as the primary news source for Americans is something to watch for in 2006.

Public opinion data in 2005 suggested that the industry had done very little to improve its continuing credibility problems, but the more pressing questions heading into 2006 may be about what the public values in newspapers.

As papers try to pave a future for their industry, they need to know what it is that brings people in and what they find lacking. Do citizens still want a daily delivery that gives them in-depth reporting on a pre-selected list of stories? Survey research from the Newspaper National Network shows that newspapers are more likely than radio, television or the Web to deal with the issues readers most care about, and a plurality think newspapers are the most comprehensive source of news.

Perhaps the key challenge for newspapers is to stay relevant in an era when commutes are longer, when people spend more time in the office, and when consumers want their news when they want it, delivered in a less cumbersome format.

Is it that consumers prefer the new commuter tabloid formats? The 20-minute quick read that provides basic facts on a wide range of topics, but little in-depth reporting?

Or maybe the real future for newspapers is to move online — and the industry has clearly taken major steps in that direction in the last several years. The Internet offers an opportunity for newspapers to compete with other media in delivering breaking news, especially at work, where research shows more and more Americans are finding time to go online for news during the day.15

But right now, most surveys ask citizens to evaluate either newspapers or the Internet. With increasing audience numbers for online newspapers, it might be worthwhile to think of them as a combined news operation across two separate platforms.

In 2006, we should expect the conversation on such big questions and challenges to intensify.