Toplines - Newspapers - March 1-2, 2009

National Survey of 1,000 Adults
Conducted March 1-2, 2009

By Rasmussen Reports

1* How closely have you followed news stories about the problems in the newspaper industry?

31% Very closely
38% Somewhat closely
23% Not very closely

6% Not at all

1% Not sure

2* How often do you read a print version of your local newspaper?

30% Rarely or never
20% Once a week or less
20% Several times a week

30% Every day or nearly every day

1% Not sure

3* How often do you read the online version of your local newspaper?

62% Rarely or never
19% Once a week or less
10% Several times a week

8% Every day or nearly every day

1% Not sure

4* How important is it for a community to have a daily print newspaper - very important, somewhat important, not very important, not at all important?

58% Very important

29% Somewhat important

10% Not very important

2% Not at all important

1% Not sure

5* How likely is it that your local daily newspaper will go out of business in the next few years?

19% Very likely
26% Somewhat likely
34% Not very likely
5% Not at all likely
16% Not sure

6* Should the federal government bail out the newspaper industry the same way it is bailing out the financial sector and the automobile industry?

17% Yes

65% No

18% Not sure

NOTE: Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confident