"Like all media, the newspaper industry is in the midst of transformation, and it still faces a myriad of challenges," Little writes. "However, his conclusion that newspapers are in a far worse position than anticipated is fundamentally flawed. The 2015 digital marketplace looks nothing like it did in 2010. In the last five years, mobile use has dramatically boosted traffic to local newspaper media," Little notes. She adds that the newspaper industry is a multi-platform media that cannot be divorced from mobile and print. But Hindman’s report focused only on digital, Little says. And that is a mistake.

"I fully recognize that the scope of academic research must be narrow and well-defined, but in failing to comprehensively examining the audience that engages with newspaper media on a variety of platforms, he (Hindman) concludes with inaccurate information about the industry," Little continues. She cites the reach of the print and digital audience for a number of local papers as proof that "newspapers remain a highly utilized source for local news and information."

Little also disputes the idea that newspapers should primarily be digital properties. "In reality, newspaper media are not digital-only enterprises. One simply cannot get a complete understanding of newspapers’ performance based on digital, apart from all other platforms," she writes. "To truly understand what engagement looks like for the newspaper industry today, one must have a full view of our audiences — digital, print and mobile."