Comment by jarjoura

There are so many mundane things that happen in local communities that I'm not sure you need research to show how invaluable it is to local readers. Yet, is noise to everyone else.

I could think of a few, new businesses opening up, or worse, shutting down, or changes to government policies that affect residents. Maybe you're in a farming community and there's a big corporate buyout that's going to make your life more difficult, or something to celebrate. What about new parks opening up, or changes to traffic flow, or even, a new stop light being added at a dangerous intersection.

These are all things people locally care about, and true, they probably wouldn't actively seek them out, but having it on the front page of their news source would definitely be interesting enough to read.