In 2010, the Customized Newspaper Advertising, a subsidiary of the Iowa Newspaper Association, conducted a survey of more than 1,200 Iowa households regarding their media consumption.
The survey sample was selected through a random selection of households throughout the state of Iowa. Only telephone numbers drawn in the random sampling were contacted, and a minimum of three attempts was made during the survey period for each telephone number selected in the sample.
The results, which have a plus-or-minus 3 percent margin of error, shed light on the importance of newspapers to Iowans. Here is some of the information CNA gleaned from its survey:
• 86 percent of Iowa adults read a local newspaper
• Of those, 74 percent subscribe to their local newspaper, the rest buy it from a rack or store or other source
• Newspaper readership was highest among members of the ages 65-74 demographic (89 percent), while the next two highest groups were ages 45-54 (88.2 percent) and ages 18-24 (87 percent).
• The lowest readership demographic group was ages 25-34, which still had a readership of 70.8 percent.
• 51.9 percent said they had made a purchase based on a newspaper advertisement in the past two weeks, compared to 21.1 percent for the Internet, 15.3 percent for television and 4.9 percent for radio.