Religion, Sports Are Rivals in Reader Poll

A Gallup poll has found that religion news and sports news are close rivals in importance to newspaper readers.

When given nine categories and asked which is “very important” to cover, 23% of those surveyed say it is most important to cover religion, which ranks fourth in the list, just ahead of sports (20.9%). Education ranks first at 44%, followed by health (40.8%) and business (27.5%). The remaining topics, in order, are food, advice, entertainment, the arts.

But when respondents were asked what they are most likely to read, sports and religion switch positions--sports came in fourth (13.5%) and religion fifth (9%).

The data, released Friday, came from two national Gallup surveys of 1,100 people conducted for a broad study by the New York-based Religious News Service of religion news reporting and newspaper readers’ views of coverage in that field.