A study collected data from 763 door-to-door interviews to test hypotheses about the uses and gratifications associated with newspaper readerships. In the interviews, respondents were identified demographically, asked about their newspaper reading behaviors, and asked to reply to a series of uses and gratifications statements on why they read newspapers: (1) to keep up on the latest events (information/intrapersonal), (2) to be entertained (entertainment/intrapersonal), (3) to give me something to talk about with other people (information/interpersonal), and (4) to show or read items to other people so that they can enjoy them (entertainment/interpersonal). Overall, results showed that everyday readership was related to an information orientation, particularly information for self-use, and this orientation was weakest in the 18-29 age group. Further, regardless of age, the readership pattern of more than one newspaper per day was strongly related toward an entertainment orientation, particularly entertainment for self, while reading only a suburban newspaper was oriented away from self-entertainment. The results indicated that the informational orientation of newspapers would help maintain readership, but that declining orientation toward using newspapers for entertainment could be a source of erosion for newspaper readership. (RL)