Local Newspapers in US and Canada

Local Newspapers in US and Canada - No Sign of Decline - Last review - 26-10-2011

General discussion - Crystal MacLaren

In my discussions with agency planners across Toronto I don’t generally get the sense that they question the strength of community media readership in Canada. The latest ComBase results support the ongoing strength of community newspaper readership. Nationally, nearly three-quarters of all adult Canadians (age 18+) read their community newspaper. In a tongue and cheek display of the newspaper as the ‘must have hand-held device of 2011’ Newspapers Canada further extols the virtue of the traditional newspaper.

And while the Canadian landscape of community newspaper readership is almost exclusively positive, I think most of us north of the US border might find it surprising that local, community newspaper readership in the US is as strong as it is. US-Based The National Newspaper Association announced recent findings of community newspaper readership habits and found that fully 81% of Americans read a local paper each week. Nearly 50% of respondents say there are days they read the newspaper as much for the ads as for the news. And compared to other mediums, fully 79% somewhat or strongly agree that they prefer to look at newspaper ads than watch ads on television and 70% somewhat or strongly agree that they prefer newspaper ads to viewing ads on the Internet.

From the combined findings in the US and Canada it seems to me that the ‘death of the [local] newspaper’ debate needs to be put to sleep.

cdm