Adults Love Local News

(Photo credit: Knight Foundation)A phone survey of more than 2,200 adults last January found 72 percent of the adults polled relied on local newspapers to satisfy their craving for local information.

The study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project, backed by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has a 2 percent margin of error, gauged how respondents obtained information about 16 topics, ranging from crime news and school information to weather reports.

The results, reported on www.PewInternet.org, found 32 percent of adults conceding the absence of their local paper would have a major impact on their lives, a number that jumped to 35 percent among adult respondents age 40 and older. The survey was conducted both on cell phones and landlines.