Local News' Future: The Web

It wasn't too long ago that you could drop into just about Webmaster forum and find, pretty much verbatim, these two questions: 

• "Where do you get your content from?"
• "Where do you get your adds from?"

Issues of grammar and spelling aside, it was pretty scary stuff to see people setting themselves up as publishers who had not even the faintest clue about their business, other than how to write a little code.

But if you think back on it, maybe it's OK.  After all, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine were basically printers who quickly expanded their skill sets as they went along.  Radio "reporters" were often guys who went into the next room and phoned in what passed as on-scene reports.  

Television reporters quickly learned to drive great big satellite trucks and stand in front of buildings where things were happening and shout questions at passersby. 

Here today ...

Big trees from little acorns and all that.  And so it is with Internet news, which a recent survey by the Pew Research Foundation suggests is the fast-rising primary source of local news, soon displacing the attractive guys and gals of TVland.

For adults generally, the internet is a main source for information about restaurants and other local businesses, and it is tied with newspapers as a top source for material about housing, jobs and schools — all areas that place a special value on consumer input, Pew researchers found.

But if you look solely at the 79% of Americans who are online, the internet is the first or second most relied-upon source for 15 of the 16 local topics examined. For adults under 40, the web is first for 11 of the top 16 topics — and a close second on four others.

While Americans still watch local TV more than any other single source of news, the study found that most of us rely on TV for just a few topics -- mostly weather, breaking news and traffic -- the most closely-followed local subjects. 

For other local topics, Americans -- especially younger ones -- tend to turn to stand-alone Web sites. For adults generally, the internet is a main source for information about restaurants and other local businesses, and it is tied with newspapers as a top source for material about housing, jobs and schools — all areas that place a special value on consumer input. 

Where do newspapers fit into this?  They're where people turn for more detailed information on more complex topics -- local government, taxation and so forth.  Of course, when it comes to taxes, some of us turn to bartenders but that's more of a one-to-one relationship.

The guy on the next stool may well turn out to be a newspaper publisher, as the Pew study found that most Americans (69%) say that if their local newspaper no longer existed, it would not have a major impact on their ability to keep up with information and news about their community.

Would Thomas Paine have approved?  Somehow, we suspect he'd be too busy blogging and texting to notice.