Readers Have Not Left the Building

[Commentary] Results of the 2008 Reader Institute tracking study of newspaper and online readership in 100 US communities:

1) Readership of the local daily newspaper among the general population is down a little from the last reading in 2006, but that result may be due to seasonal variation.

2) Readership among 18-24-year-olds in the general population continues to slowly decline; but the habit is fairly stable for 45-plus.

3) People who read newspapers say they spend, on average, 27 minutes with them on weekdays, and 57 minutes on Sundays. The first figure has stayed stable, but the latter figure has been slowly dropping since we first started tracking in 2002.

4) Readers continue to engage with the newspaper, on average, more than five days a week.

5) On average they complete 60 percent of the paper on weekdays and 62 percent on Sundays – again, stable habits.

6) The penetration of newspaper Web sites is still quite low in most communities, though it should be noted that we measured response only to the main site, not to related sites whose ownership consumers might not recognize.