We asked separately about restaurants, bars, and clubs versus other local businesses because we thought entertainment establishments such eateries and bars were a distinct category of local business that might draw a different audience and might show different patterns of information seeking. That proved to be the case.
The 55% of all adults who get information about restaurants, bars, and clubs are disproportionately young, female, tech adaptive and upscale in educational attainment, urban.
Those who get news and information about local restaurants, bars, and clubs are also likely to be avid local news consumers who enjoy following the local scene, pay for local news in some form, and use multiple platforms to get the local information.
Those who are heavy local news junkies are considerably more likely than others to get material about local restaurants. We asked people about their use of 14 different kinds of sources to get local news and their frequency of using those platforms.[1] When it comes to restaurant information, 71% of those who used at least six platforms monthly got news and information about local restaurants, compared with 34% of those who relied on just one or two sources.
Additionally, we asked people if they got local news and information their cell phones, and 47% of all adults said they did.[2]These mobile consumers, who were younger and more upscale in terms of their household income and educational levels, were even more likely than others to get material about local restaurants: 62% of mobile local news consumers got information about local businesses, compared with 48% of others.
The platforms people use to get information about local restaurants, bars, and clubs
We asked the 55% of adults who said they got information about local restaurants what sources they relied on for such information.
- Internet: 51% of those who get information about local entertainment businesses rely most on some kind of online source for that material.
- Newspaper: 31% of them say they rely on newspaper material either in printed form or the website of their local newspaper for information about restaurants, bars, and clubs
- Word of mouth: 23% of them say they rely on other people most of all for news and information about for information about restaurants, bars, and clubs
- Local TV: 8% of them say they rely on TV for news about for information about restaurants, bars, and clubs – either broadcasts or the stations’ websites
FOOTNOTES
[1] The list of sources was: 1) print version of local newspaper; 2) website of local newspaper; 3) local TV broadcasts; 4) website of local TV station; 5) local radio; 6) website of local radio station; 7) other websites that are dedicated to their communities; 8) blogs about their community; 9) people and organizations that respondents follow on social networking sites; 10) people and organizations that respondents follow on Twitter; 11) email newsletters and listservs; 12) printed newsletters; 13) word of mouth from friends; 14) search engines.
[2] "How mobile devices are changing community information systems" March 14, 2011. Available at: https://legacy.pewresearch.org/internet/Reports/2011/Local-mobile-news.aspx
