Study Shows Most College Students Read Print Newspapers

A fashionable label slapped on the young (read: anyone between the ages of 18-24) is that they won't touch a newspaper with a 10-foot pole. Look no further than the college campus and that notion is dispelled.

A new study shows that college students are interested in reading the news and they are getting it from their campus newspapers: Seventy-seven percent of undergraduates surveyed said they read the print edition of their campus paper at least once each month and 57% read it online.

The research was conducted by Y2M: Youth Media and Marketing Networks, a Boston-based company that provides content management for 450 college newspapers and places national advertising in their pages (print and online) for such clients as Samsung, Ford, Apple, Macy's, and Goldman Sachs.

More than 7,500 people participated in the survey ranging from undergraduates, alumnae, parents, graduate students, recent graduates, and faculty.

"For traditional media an important key takeaway is that readership is very, very, strong among college students," said Paul Pennelli, director of Web products for Y2M. "That could be good news for traditional outlets as students leave the bubble of their college campus and go out in the larger world. There are young people with a high disposition to reading news and staying abreast on what's going on."

The study found that readers -- 90% of those surveyed -- go to campus newspapers to get local, campus news. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they read the campus paper for opinions and commentary. Forty-one percent read the paper for entertainment while 37% read it for sports.

"The message we are reading is focus what you are really good at," said Dina Pradel, vice president and general manger of Y2M. She noted that if respondents wanted celebrity gossip they went to other media outlets like magazines.

Traditional newspapers play a role in the lives of students as well. Fifty-seven percent of undergraduates said they read their local non-campus newspapers at least once a month while 45% read it online.

The study also looks at where students get their national news. Of those surveyed, about 32%, read The New York Times at least once per month; 23% read USA Today. The study notes The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal known for their political and business coverage respectively did not "fare as well."

Not so surprising, many flock to the Web for national news and students like CNN.com, the results show. Forty-nine percent go there at least once per month. Nyt.com did slightly better than its print counterpart with 35% of students visiting the site at least once per month. Thirty-seven percent of undergrads read MSNBC.com.

However the research shows that like traditional newspapers, campus newspapers are having a hard time getting readers interested in the classifieds -- even online. In 2005, when Y2M conducted its first study, 31% of respondents said they use the online listings at the campus newspaper site. A year later, 26% of respondents said they same thing. "Presumably, this reduction is the result of the expansion and adoption of free online classified sites, such as Craigslist.org," the study said.

Undergraduates also want to see more "convergence:" Forty-eight percent want video/vodcasts and 45% want blogs on their online campus newspapers. "Conversely, demand for podcasts was quite low; this statistic appears in to be in direct contrast to the amount of attention campus media professionals and student journalists have paid to podcasts," the study said.