The future of local newspapers will be a key issue for regional, rural and suburban voters at the next federal election, a newly
released national study has found.
The biggest national survey of local news audiences in Australia, conducted as part of the Media Innovation and Civic Future of
Australia’s Country Press project, reveals the passion people have for their local newspaper and has found they want a much
bigger say about its future.
The Australian Research Council-funded project involves researchers from Deakin and RMIT universities
with support from Country Press Australia, the peak media body for independent news organisations.
The survey findings come as country newspapers have struggled to survive during the pandemic. The survey asked almost 4200
Australian country press newspaper readers in rural, regional and outer suburban areas about the role of local newspapers within
their communities.
Key findings include a continued strong demand (and passion) for the printed product in rural and regional Australia. The majority
of audiences prefer a printed newspaper, with younger generations also part of this trend. Country Press readers overall are 2.6
times as likely to read their local paper in print than in digital format.
The survey found audiences overwhelmingly view a printed copy of their newspaper as an essential service for their community.
Survey respondants said they were five times as likely to go directly to a local news website for their local news than Google or
Facebook, and almost 10 times as likely to go to the local newspaper website over a local council website for their local news
and information.
Surprisingly, just 5% of younger audiences say they mostly use social media to find out about local news.
There was overwhelming support for any additional funding for local media to be directed to employing more local
journalists to report news (71%), over increasing digital connectivity (13%) and digital innovation products (17%).
Project leader Associate Professor Kristy Hess, from Deakin’s School of Communication, said the voices and perspectives of
everyday audiences were often missing in policy discussion about the future of local media and people had offered innovative
ideas to support their future.
“It’s clear that the local newspaper really matters to Australian audiences; personally,I don’t think that was ever in doubt. But we
can see from this survey just how passionate readers are about the sustainability of news that provides good quality local content
and keeps them informed about people and happenings in their community,” Associate Professor Hess said.
The survey is part of a three-year project that aims to develop and road-test a new map to support local news media in the digital
era.
