[Mpls] sports sections and newspaper bias

[Jonathan Gaw]

Folks,

I know I won't be dampening any media bias conspiracy theories (folks on
just about every side of any issue consistently claim the media is against
them), but I did want to correct some mis-statements on this list about
newspaper readership.

Sports and comics are not the most-read sections of the newspaper. The most
recent survey by the Newspaper Association of America found general news as
holding the largest readership by a pretty large margin, with sports in a
statistical dead heat with business and the editorial pages. More people
read the classified than read the comics.
http://www.naa.org/marketscope/readership2004/section_readership_2004.pdf

Also, the sports section doesn't pull in as much advertising as you'd think.
Higher rates are generated by the main, business, calendar and food
sections.
http://www.naa.org/Presstime/PTArtPage.cfm?aid=6840

Jonathan Gaw
Longfellow

Full disclosure: I write a column for the Star Tribune's OpEx section on
Sundays. I am not a Star Tribune employee currently, although I worked for
the newspaper in years past.