NEWSPLAN London and the South East

History and Society Through Local Newspapers
in London and the South East

Newspaper Use Surveys

NEWSPLAN has undertaken surveys of local newspaper use to capture a picture of how newspapers are read and consulted in libraries and record offices in the UK. There will be further surveys at intervals in the future.

Use of local newspapers in London & the South East

The survey of March 1999 of readers of local newspaper collections (which also included use of national newspaper titles) in London and the South East found that

• 55% were studying family and local history
• 14% reading about sport, 13% business/financial news, 13% obituaries, 13% looking at pictures (specific or general)
• 11% reading crime/legal news, 10% political news, 10% advertisements, and 5% the history of houses
• 46% were reading newspapers 20 to 100 years old, 40% reading newspapers 20 or less years old, 23% reading newspapers 100 or more years old
• many readers would be studying more than one of the subjects listed and reading newspapers in more than one age group: over 70% said they found what they were looking for and 70% also said that they found by accident items that were of interest to them

The more recent survey of February 2004 of readers in London and the South East (which also differentiated and recorded much more use of national newspaper titles, alongside local newspapers, than the previous survey) found that

• 39% were reading about political news, 34% about local events, 29% business & financial affairs, 28% sport, 23% cultural topics
• 21% were consulting obituaries, a range within 15%-20% reading about legal affairs & crime, advertisements, births marriages & deaths, and looking for pictures (specific or general) while a range within 10%-15% looked at house & buildings histories and ?other? information (such as job & property seeking)
• 43% said their purpose was to research family & local history while 42% stated 'private interest' as the purpose of their search (many of those who cited this would be looking for more specific subjects like family & local history, as in the 1999 survey)
• 36% were reading local newspaper titles 20-100 years old, 35% reading newspapers 20 or less years old and nearly 14% reading newspapers 100 or more years old; the equivalent figures for reading national newspaper titles were 11%, nearly 37% and almost 6%
• as previously many readers were studying more than one of the subjects listed and reading newspapers in more than one age group: 75% said they found what they were seeking and 75% also said they found, unplanned, items of interest to them
• (the more extensive reading of such subjects as political news, business & financial affairs and sport is due in part to the much greater incidence of use of national newspaper titles during the 2004 survey than the previous one of 1999)

For a full set of the regional survey results of the 10 NEWSPLAN regions of the UK
Click on www.bl.uk/concord/linc/newsplan.html

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