Regional newspapers under pressure in the UK and US - but what would their demise mean?

Posted by Helena Deards on March 13, 2009 at 4:39 PM

With closures and threatened closures for local newspapers around the US, Pew Research has asked a "nationally representative sample of 1,001 adults" their thoughts on the matter. Suprisingly, just 43% of those surveyed said that civic life would be hurt "a lot" if local newspapers were to close - and 23% were of the opinion that the effect of such an event would be "not much" or "not at all". With regard to the role of local newspapers, 30% of those who believe their demise would have "a lot" of impact on civil life give the reason for this as reliance upon them to provide in depth local news. Conversely, 29% of the 23% who didn't think the effect would be too great, cited other news sources providing similar information.

Similarly, the UK regional press is under pressure. Ian Burrell of the Independent writes that the sector is "in unprecedented crisis and there is not one of the media organisations with interests in this sector that has been immune to this catastrophic downturn in the industry's fortunes". Whilst not parallel statistics, Burrell states that "an impressive 82 per cent of UK adults read local newspapers", compared with the 41% of Americans in the Pew Research survey who said they get local news from newspapers "regularly".

Both articles give examples of the role of the regional and local press in their relevant countries. Pew quotes one respondent as warning "I think communities don't realise how dependent they are", whilst Burrell writes, "the regional press has a more vital democratic function than ever, now that the national media - itself under intense economic pressure - is increasingly restricted to covering events in London". The publication of these reports within one day of each other on opposite sides of the Atlantic serves to highlight the difficulties which local press faces; not only in their financial affairs but also in terms of the attitudes of their readers.

Source: The Independent, Pew Research