Beer-guzzling couch potatoes aren't the only ones obsessed with sports these days. Newspapers carry more news about sports than any other topic, according to a recent study
from the Readership Institute at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Research Manager Stacy Lynch says regardless of size, newspapers dedicate between 21% and 23% of their
column inches to sports. Second place belongs to news about politics and government. Crime-related stories and business news came in third and fourth, respectively. The study also
found that local dailies mirror national ones in terms of coverage. "Newspapers who circulate to 200,000 and those that go to 10,000 are pretty much doing the sam thing," says
Lynch. The Institute studied 100 daily newspaper markets around the country.
(Stacy Lynch, Readership Institute, 847/491-9900, http://www.readership.org/)