In a survey of 940 adult residents of the metropolitan Columbia (South Carolina) area, sense of community attachment proved to be a more important determinant of newspaper reading habits than such demographic factors as age, years of residence in the community, socioeconomic status, family income, or attained level of education. The telephone survey had a sampling error of less than two % for age, race, income, and education; and although women were overrepresented in the sample, sex differences were not found to be significant in the frequency of readership or in other reading habits examined. Most of the surveyed adults report multiple newspaper reading habits because they are very mobile, have multiple community attachments, and depend on the newspaper as a preferred source of community information. Their recommendations for improvements in the content of local newspapers are predominantly community oriented rather than personally oriented, showing that Americans, because of their mobility, have a strong need for a sense of community attachment, not only for where they currently live but also for where they have lived. Newspapers can foster the daily reading habit in adults by emphasizing community-oriented information that United States adults seek and apparently need. (RL)