Pew Research — Local Information Need Buoys Newspapers

The death of newspapers and local TV may not be a death at all. Editors of these media will need to understand what consumers want from them before there can be any considerable turnaround from a period in which some have lost half of their revenue.

A new study from the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project, done in conjunction with John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, shows that people look to newspapers to provide information on community events and local crime, government reports, housing and politics. Local TV stations are primary sources for weather, local news, and traffic.

The message from the research is that the extent to which local media help Americans to keep informed on national and international news is a poor investment of resources. Pew reports that “Newspapers (both the print and online versions, though primarily print) rank first or tie for first as the source people rely on most for 11 of the 16 different kinds of local information asked about — more topics than any other media source.” The emphasis of the point is on “local.”

Pew warns that the traffic to local radio and newspaper sites could be undermined by the rise of internet-only local news sources. This would imply that new services like Aol’s (NYSE: AOL) Patch may have success if the portal continues to invest in this initiative. Papers and radio still hold one advantage — they are the incumbents.

Incumbency is only as valuable as the effort to take advantage of it. The habit of local newspapers to provide national news as part of the primary reporting on their front pages and as a large part of their overall coverage is wasted. It lowers the amount of space, or at least the most visible space, for information that is most useful for their readers — at least according to Pew.

Newspapers and local radio may be able to retain or even increase their market presence, but only if editors move coverage toward what the consumer wants. That means abandoning the pretense that they are effective sources for news from outside their own markets.

Douglas A. McIntyre