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Newspapers Still Read by 74% of Americans: Scarborough

Despite the almost insurmountable challenges facing the newspaper industry today, most Americans admit to still reading them.

According to Scarborough Research’s latest Integrated Newspaper Audience study, 74% of American adults - or 171 million people - either read a newspaper or visit a newspaper website at least once a week.

Among a more affluent, educated audience, readership is even higher:

• 79% of white-collar adults read a newspaper in print or online
• 82% of adults with household incomes of $100,000 or more per year read printed or online newspaper content
• 84% of college graduates or those with advanced degrees read content from either the print or online version of a newspaper each week.

Print newspaper readership is still slowly declining but, according to [pdf] Gary Meo, Scarborough vp of print and digital media services, newspapers are holding onto their audiences relatively well, given the fragmentation of media choices.

The report is noteworthy, Scarborough points out, in the wake of the recent data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations which reported significant declines in weekday and Sunday printed newspaper circulation. “While Scarborough shows declines in printed newspaper readership, these have not been as severe as those reported in circulation. This is because circulation and audience do not always march in lockstep as they are two different measurements,” Meo says.

Circulation refers to the number of newspaper copies sold, while audience refers to the percentage or number of adults who actually read the newspaper.

In a plea to those who evaluate the health of the medium and the attractiveness of the medium’s advertising, the Newspaper Association of America’s president and CEO John F. Sturm says “...audience is a far more meaningful way to measure newspapers’ ability to attract a growing audience across multiple platforms.” The Scarborough research, he says, “provides further evidence that newspapers reach a highly educated, affluent audience.”

A separate study from Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America recently showed that, between 2005 and 2009, unique visitors to newspaper websites grew from a monthly average of 41.1 million to an average of 71.8 million, reports MediaPost. During the same period, print revenues plummeted from $22.2 billion in 2005 to $12.2 billion in the first half of this year, down 45%.