• by John Gaffney , May 1, 2002

Despite increased readership of online newspaper sites, Americans still like to read a real daily paper. New research introduced at the Newspaper Association of America’s Spring trade gathering in New Orleans today shows that daily newspaper readership is up – slightly - over last year.

The data from the Competitive Media Index shows that 55.5% of adults read a newspaper everyday. That’s up from 54.3% in the Fall 2001. Sunday readership held steady at 63.9% of adults reading the paper each week. This was up slightly from the 63.7% reported in the CMI last fall, and about the same as the 63.8% from last spring. Over four Sundays, 77.5% of adults read a newspaper at least once. Over the course of a week (5 weekdays plus a Sunday), newspapers reach 81.8% of adults.

NAA chief marketing officer John Kimball says that makes a strong case to media buyers.

“What’s very encouraging is that the local marketplace clearly connects with newspapers,” he said. “That connection is very strong, and we think advertisers will find that connection will remain strong into the future.”

Total readership numbers declined, according to data released at the show. The Audit Bureau of Circulations for the six-month period ending March 31, 2002 shows average daily net-paid circulation in the 820 papers reporting dipped slightly from the year before, 0.6%, to 50,687,764. On Sunday, the trend for the 635 papers reporting was about same, falling 0.7% to 54,327,477.

However, the NAA still finds the numbers show strength. NAA President and CEO John Sturm said the overall circulation drop was not surprising in a down economy. He noted that many local papers had cut back on circulation promotions to save money in a market that has been hit hard by the ad recession.

Providence, RI and Hartford CT tied for the strongest daily newspaper reach among adults at 65%. Other markets tracking above 60% include Boston, Cleveland, Buffalo Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Tampa.

The CMI study found that some media showed growth over the same period, while others held steady. The average half-hour of prime-time broadcast TV reached 38.6% of adults in the top 50 markets, down slightly from the Fall 2001 CMI (38.8%) but similar to the report of this time last year (38.6%). The average half-hour of prime-time cable TV programming reached 12.6% of adults in these markets, compared to 12.9% in the fall CMI report and 12.2% in the spring.

The average 15 minutes of radio morning drive time reached 22.5% of adults in the top 50 markets, a gain over the 21.9% reported last fall but slightly less than the 22.9% in the Spring 2001 CMI. The same time period for the afternoon drive was 18.3%, up from 17.9 in the fall but less than the 18.5% last spring.