That was how reporter Sean Robinson set up the data from a new study released by the Readership Institute as he sent a link to the Newsroom via email today. The study found strong interest in the printed newspaper among readers, which goes directly counter to all the "print is dead" talk we are used to reading.

The short answer is that reading customers aren't deserting newspapers at anything approaching the rate that advertising customers are. That is no consolation for newspaper company employees who are losing their jobs, and it's a challenge, to say the least, for a smaller staff to produce, sell and deliver a high-quality local news report for the people who want it.

But make no mistake: lots of people still want it and lots are paying attention to the local newspaper.

This doesn't surprise me. Even though I'm the editor of the web site, when I'm talking with people in the community I mostly field questions and comments about the newspaper, not the web site. So my anecdotal research mirrors what the Readership Institute found.

Unfortunately that doesn't make the economics of publishing a daily newspaper in today's environment any easier. It's just nice when the news about the industry isn't ALL bad.