Selection of Cities for Inclusion
Cities were selected based on their 2006 U.S. Census population figures.  The study was limited to those cities with a population of 250,000 or larger as of July 1, 2006.
 

Newspaper Data
For the newspaper database, the Daily and Sunday Circulation figures for the March 2007 reporting period from the Publisher’s Statements were obtained from the Audit Bureau of Circulation website (www.accessabc.com).  Those numbers were divided by the 2006 U.S. Census population figures for the cities resulting in a ratio, which was then rank ordered.  Four cities (Anaheim, CA, Arlington, TX, Plano, TX, and Aurora, CO) had no newspaper published in their city that participates in the ABC publishers statements. Additionally, one of the major newspapers in Chicago, IL (i.e., The Sun-Times) was being censured by ABC, so the figures from that newspaper are from the previous 26 weeks ending September 25, 2005.  Similarly, the major newspaper in Colorado Springs, CO (i.e., The Gazette) was being censured by ABC, and its figures are from the previous 26 weeks ending September 30, 2006. 
 

Internet Data
Figures for the “number of internet terminals at public libraries” were obtained from the Fiscal Year 2005 Public Libraries Survey from the National Center for Education Statistics website.  Figures for “purchased a book online” were obtained from Scarborough Research’s February 2006-March 2007 USA+2007 Release.  Cities were ranked according to the number of books purchased online per 10,000 people.  Please note that for 2007, Scarborough did not have data for the following cities:  Long Beach, CA; Mesa, AZ; Plano, TX; Corpus Christi, TX; Aurora, CO; Arlington, TX; New Britain, CT; Anaheim, CA; Omaha, NE; Riverside, CA; Anchorage, AK; Santa Ana, CA; and Newark, NJ.  Hence, all of those cities were ranked last.  For Virginia Beach, the Norfolk/Portsmouth/Newport News DMA was used.  Other combination DMAs included:  Hartford/New Haven; Albuquerque/Santa Fe; Cleveland/Akron; Colorado Springs/Pueblo; Dallas/Ft. Worth; Fresno/Visalia;  Miami/Ft. Lauderdale; Minneapolis/St. Paul; Raleigh/Durham; Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto; San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose; Seattle/Tacoma; Tampa/St. Petersburg; and Wichita/Hutchinson.

Figures for “Number of Unique Visitors” and  “Number of Webpage Views” to a city’s internet-version newspaper were provided by a collaborative effort of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the Newspaper Association of America, and Scarborough Research.  Primary sources included: Omniture SiteCatalyst; Nielsen Net Ratings Netview; comScore; SageMetrics; and HBX Analytics.  The data can be found at www.audiencefax.com.  This particular database did not have information on internet newspaper viewership for several cities and their respective newspapers.  As such, these cities were all ranked similarly last on these two variables.  The cities were:  Albuquerque, NM; Anaheim, CA; Arlington, TX; Aurora, CO; Bakersfield, CA: Buffalo, NY; Cincinnati, OH; El Paso, TX; Las Vegas, NV; Long Beach, CA; Mesa, AZ; Oakland, CA; Omaha, NE; Pittsburgh, PA; Plano, TX; San Jose, CA; and Stockton, CA.

 
Magazines and Journals Data
Figures for this database were gathered from the web edition of the National Directory of Magazines (2007) for magazines and the Standard Periodical Directory (2007) for journals through the www.MediaFinder.com website of Oxbridge Communications.  Figures were obtained online from these sources on October 17, 2007.   Only those journals with a total circulation of 500 or more were included, and only those magazines with a total circulation of 2,500 or more were included.  All categories, target audiences, media types, and frequencies of publication were included.

Booksellers and Stores Data
For this database, information was gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau website (http://www.census.gov  (2006 population)), as well as Yellow Pages, Inc. (http://www.yellowpagesinc.com  (2007)) for information on retail, rare, and used booksellers.  Also, the American Booksellers Association site (http://www.bookweb.org  (2007)) was used for independent bookseller information.  Please note that for figures reported for “retail”, these did not include any “specialty”, “adult”, or “religious” bookstores, and the stores were those listed at these database sites on September 25, 2007. 

Educational Attainment Data
For this database, information was gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau’s “American Factfinder” website (http://factfinder.census.gov), specifically from the results of the American Community Survey, 2006.  The Educational Attainment data were gathered from the geographic subset listed as, “Principal City of a Metropolitan Statistical Area.”  The data were released from the U.S. Census Bureau on August 28, 2007.

Library Data
Information regarding library staff per capita, volumes per capita, circulation per capita, and branches per capita was gleaned from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) database, specifically the “Library Statistics Program” and its “Public Libraries Survey FY2005”. 

Please note that the number of library staff listed for Chicago, IL reflects only librarians, as the total library staff figures were not reported.

Information regarding the number of students and media specialists comes from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) database, specifically the “Public School District” data for the 2005-2006 school year.  For the “Media Specialists” total, the number of “Librarians/Media Specialists” were combined with the number of “Library/Media Support” staff.

Please note that the number of media specialists for Washington, DC was obtained from the latest available source (NCES CCD 2004-2005 data).

School districts labeled as “Regular School Districts” in population centers labeled  “City: Large” in a “MSA- Central City” metropolitan status were included.

Additionally, several cities’ information was based on county school district information reported.  They included: