readMedia Newspaper Survey Shows 50 Percent of Hyperlocal News Restricted to Print

ALBANY, NY (04/22/2010)(readMedia)-- A survey by readMedia of more than 1,000 community newspaper editors and reporters demonstrates the challenges and opportunities of the "hyperlocal" online media landscape. News stories that 90 percent of editors identified as "very important" to their local readers, and that 97 percent have printed in the past 60 days, are not being published online.

Newspaper editors were asked about their attitudes toward, and use of, "hometown news" stories--press releases issued to local media by colleges and the military to promote the accomplishments of individual students and soldiers.

"Editors at community newspapers know their audiences well, and are very attuned to what local people want to read in the paper. It's clear that hometown news is a big deal to editors and the communities they serve," said Colin Mathews, readMedia's CEO.

However, respondents apparently don't see the need to reach readers with this news online. Fewer than 50 percent of newspapers publish hometown news online, and 9 percent reported having no website at all.

Survey respondents noted that hyperlocal, hometown news is important because it differentiates their publication from larger media outlets that are more regional or national in focus. Responses emphasized that readers of community newspapers expect and demand hometown news content and many editors feel that providing it is a core function and essential service of community journalism.

"While people are spending more time than ever consuming content online, this survey suggests that a lot of the content they value offline doesn't exist on the web," said Mathews. "The winners in local online media will figure out how to meet that need, but it's not going to be as easy as 'scraping' content from the web."

An executive summary of the survey findings and a summary graphic are attached.

The full survey report is available here.

About readMedia:

readMedia's software platform enables organizations to publish their important local news to the media, local audiences, social media and the web quickly and easily. State and local government agencies, colleges and universities, non-profits and local businesses nationwide use readMedia's Newsmaker and Hometown Newsmaker applications to "get the word out." News organizations and online media can discover and syndicate hundreds of thousands of high quality, hyperlocal news stories published by readMedia annually in every zip code in the U.S.

readMedia is based in New York and is backed by investors that include Joe Mansueto, founder and CEO of Morningstar, and David Hosokawa, former CEO and vice chairman of Monster.com. Learn more at www.readmedia.com

Posted Thursday April 22, 2010 at 10:03 am by readMedia, Inc.
Last Updated Thursday January 27, 2011 at 02:03 pm