On my desk at the library is a binder of considerable size. Within this binder live scanned copies of (just about) every single clip related to the library published in the local papers. Nothing is overlooked, not even the very tiny one-sentence briefs announcing the meeting times of the North Regional chess club. It's my understanding that the binder is brought out at board meetings so that Gina can show to the BoD that marketing is doing a good job of keeping the library in the public eye.
On one hand, I don't know why she bothers. It's not as if newspaper readership is exactly faring well, so why does it matter if articles--much less those tiny little event blurbs--even make it in there in the first place? On the other hand, this makes perfect sense. A rundown of the spreadsheet of Humanities Society members shows that a good many of them (three hundred out of around thirteen hundred) do not have an e-mail address, whether because they do not want one or because they do not have home internet. For these people, many of whom are senior citizens, the newspaper is still a main source for local events. It would then make sense that it's important to keep track of what is being reported upon in the print media so that marketing can then keep tabs on which events are receiving the most coverage and can then compare that amount of coverage to attendance rates at events to see if the two are connected.
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