Florida's Newspapers Set a Fast Pace   

But don't chalk it all up to age. Quality counts.

You might expect high newspaper readership in Florida, a state that has more than its share of older people. But more than 80 percent of the people reading dailies? That should warm hearts and cause intense jealousy among a lot of editors and publishers.

A study commissioned by the Florida Press Association reports that six out of 10 Florida adults "read a newspaper yesterday." Of those who didn't, more than half said they had read a paper in the past week: thus the 80 percent figure. Six of 10 were subscribers. Three others bought papers from racks or at stores. One read a pass-along copy.

These numbers are impressive. A Gannett survey just out shows 71 percent of U.S. adults read at least one weekday edition of a local or regional paper, and 57 percent of those read a paper on a typical weekday. This is a somewhat askew comparison, since "yesterday" and "a typical weekday" are not the same. Florida's retirement-age population is high. But retirees probably offer only part of the explanation. Thoughts:

One: Older people have more time to read. But today, like everyone else, they have more options: an array of recreational, entertainment and educational opportunities and organized group activities.

Two: Today's older people always did read newspapers more than younger people are inclined to do now. Thus, older people not only have more time but also have the habit.

Three: Florida, at least arguably, is blessed with more good daily newspapers than any other state, and they give people good reason to be readers. What other state has as many major newspapers of the caliber of the Miami Herald, the Orlando Sentinel, the St. Petersburg Times and some other good ones a notch or two below those?

Four: That quality is not unrelated to the fact that many of these best newspapers are in highly competitive circumstances; they had better do what they can to get and keep readers, or they'll be displaced. And they are after rich targets: high population growth.

Five: Florida not only has a lot of good papers. It also has – and this is hardly a coincidence – some of the best (or just some of the better) ownerships in terms of management: Knight-Ridder, the Tribune Co., the New York Times Co., Gannett and the self-owned St. Pete Times, to name some of the major ones.

Since the U.S. population is growing older, the Florida example may be encouraging to newspapers.

But will today's younger people be readers when they are older? People between the ages of 16 and 29, a recent survey by the American Society of Newspaper Editors confirms, are not finding newspapers as essential as older readers do (see "The X Factor," page 34).

But their disinterest has been exaggerated. ASNE reports that in Generation X, 42 percent read newspapers regularly (every day or almost every day), 32 percent read occasionally and 25 percent read infrequently. They read papers, just less often, with 24 percent reading every day, compared with 37 percent among Boomers.

Not every state can be Florida for newspapers. But don't attribute it all to age or even affluence (where the highest readership is found). Quality – and choices – have to be profound factors.