Print Editions of Papers Reach More Readers than Online Sites

Newspaper Web sites reach only 15 percent of local Internet users, while print editions still gather far more readers, according to a recent study published in Newspaper Research Journal.

H. Iris Chyi and Seth C. Lewis examined readership in 68 local news markets across the nation and found that newspapers reached more people in print form than through online editions. In most local markets, more users logged on to national news Web sites, such as MSNBC or Yahoo! News for information more so than their local newspaper’s Web site.

The study also found that circulation size was not an indication of a Web site’s reach. Some smaller newspapers were more successful than larger papers in reaching more readers through the Web.

Chyi and Lewis said the results of their study suggest the answer for newspapers struggling in today’s economy is not to drop the print edition all together, calling such a solution “too simplistic.”

Chyi is an assistant professor and Lewis is a doctoral student in the department of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin.

The study appears in the fall 2009 issue of Newspaper Research Journal.

Contacts: Sandra H. Utt e-mail: nrj@newspaperresearchjournal.org or Elinor Kelley Grusin e-mail: egrusin@memphis.edu.

• Download Use of Online Newspaper Sites Lags Behind Print Editions by Hsiang Iris Chyi and Seth C. Lewis
• About Newspaper Research Journal
• About Research You Can Use