There are some interesting findings about attitudes towards online news, bias and global coverage in a Harris Interactive poll on newspapers and their online sites, which has just been released at the World Association of Newspapers conference here in Cape Town. The poll of 8,749 adults was taken last month in seven countries (US, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Australia).

Online vs TV
Five years out, readers expect online to overtake TV networks as their main source of news in four of the seven countries — US, France, Italy and Spain — and for the two to be level-placed in a fifth — Australia.

Appetite for global news
Against the widely-held view amongst newspaper execs here that the future of newspapers is ‘hyper-local’ the survey shows a surprising appetite for global news.

Asked to tell editors here what they should do to make their services more attractive, the top three responses were:

• Cover more local news and information
• Improve your journalistic quality
• Provide more in-depth analysis on world events

Douglas Griffen of Harris said there was an urgent need for papers to increase international coverage: “We are increasingly affected by national and world events, newspapers have an opportunity to help us better understand the global issues and impacts.” 

Bias
When asked why some people don’t want to read a newspaper on a regular basis the top three were:

• Lack of time
• Easier to go online
• Biased or too narrow a viewpoint in its reporting

The theme of bias also cropped up when readers were asked what newspapers can do to better represent the issues in their communities:

• Ensure that all points of view are fairly represented
• Provide more research
• Raise the quality of writing and analysis

More details of the survey can be found on the World Association of Newspapers site.