The primary goal of advertising is to reach a defined audience in order to impact behaviour and influence potential customers. Media engagement levels indicate that readers are paying attention, and are demonstrating a level of connection. Engagement is also necessary for a community to form, setting the stage for influence to occur.
Recent research reveals that readers of printed community newspapers demonstrate strong engagement across a number of measured variables, including the amount of time spent with the paper, the tendency to follow all types of news closely, and ranking printed newspapers as their favourite source of local news.
The 2016 Community Newspapers Drive Results study proves that printed community newspaper readers are definitely engaged.