A little. In a Dayton, Ohio study about 4.5 percent of recovered dogs and 3 percent of cats came through a newspaper ad. For radio, we found no data at all.
The honest answer
Newspaper ads do help some owners, but they rarely do the work, and they should come after shelters, flyers and your neighborhood search. The one useful figure comes from a study of lost pets in Dayton, Ohio, published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association in 2007. Of the recovered pets, 6 dogs, or 4.5 percent, and 2 cats, or 3 percent, came back through a newspaper advertisement. For radio we found no figures at all, in that study or in any other we could read. So the short version is this. A paper ad is a small extra, worth buying only in certain places, and a radio mention is an untested long shot that costs very little to ask for.
What the Dayton figure can and cannot tell you
Those numbers are small and old, so read them carefully. The study covered four months and tracked 187 dogs and 138 cats. Eight animals is not many, and a shift of a few would change the percentages a lot. Also, the researchers found owners partly by scanning the local newspaper’s classified ads, as well as through the county dog warden and two humane societies. That means people who bought an ad were more likely to be in the study in the first place. If anything, that could make ads look better than they are, though we cannot say by how much. And the data is nearly 20 years old, from a time when many more people read a paper.
What other evidence shows
A national ASPCA survey asked owners how they got their pets back. Newspaper ads did not appear among the main successful methods for dogs or for cats. In that survey’s small group of owners who never recovered a pet, 4 of 8 dog owners and 2 of 18 cat owners had used one, so ads were tried and they did not always work. It was a small group, so this shows only that an ad is no guarantee. Meanwhile, searching the neighborhood accounted for 49 percent of recovered dogs and 30 percent of recovered cats. In Dayton, neighborhood signs brought back 15 percent of recovered dogs and 11 percent of found cats, and shelters accounted for 35 percent of recovered dogs. Those are the places to put your first hours.
Fewer readers than when that study ran
The Pew Research Center estimated total US daily newspaper circulation, print and digital, at 40.4 million on weekdays in 2014 and about 20.9 million in 2022, its most recent figure on that page. Northwestern University’s 2025 State of Local News report says nearly 3,500 local papers, about 40 percent, have closed since 2005, and that 212 counties have no local news source at all. So the Dayton numbers probably overstate what an ad can do in most places now. That is our inference, as nobody has re-run the study. We also do not know who is still reading the lost and found column, or whether any single ad reaches anyone who has seen your pet.
Where a paper ad may still make sense
There are cases where it is reasonable. A small town with a weekly paper that people really do read is the best one. So is a rural area where neighbors are far apart, posts on Nextdoor reach few people, and some older residents are not on Facebook. A long search, past the first couple of weeks, is another, as an ad reaches people who have never seen your flyer. Call the paper and ask three things: how many homes it reaches, when the next issue closes, and whether it runs lost pet notices at a reduced rate or free. Rates vary, so ask. If the paper has a website or a Facebook page, ask whether a notice can go there as well.
What to write
You pay by space, and a stranger reads it fast, so keep it to the words that sort a match from a miss. Try this: LOST CAT. Gray tabby, white chest, neutered male, 10 lb. Oak St and 5th, Oct 28. Shy, do not chase. Check sheds and garages. Call or text 555-0100. Leave out your address and full street number, the amount of any reward, and the one detail you are keeping back to test callers. Run it for one or two issues, then check whether you got a single call. Give a date on the ad so that people who see it late know how recent it is.
Read the found ads
This is the cheapest thing a newspaper can do for you, and people forget it. The ASPCA paper notes that people who find a pet may try to locate the owner by placing a newspaper ad, so read the found notices in every paper within a reasonable drive, every issue, in print and online. The Animal Rescue League of Boston also tells owners of stolen pets to watch newspaper ads and online postings for matches. Ask a relative who takes the paper to check too. A finder who is older, or who lives where the paper still matters, may never see your post online, but they may well pay for an ad in the found column.
Radio and local stations
Nobody seems to have measured this. A short on-air mention reaches people in cars, which is who you want for a dog near a main road, but a listener has no photo and only seconds to catch a detail. Small local stations and community stations are your best chance. Call and ask whether they do community announcements or a pet segment. Give one sentence: Lost black lab, Route 9 near the feed store, call this number. Do not pay for a radio spot unless you have done everything else and can spare the money, as there is no evidence to say that it would pay off. Ask for it free first.
Sources
Lord et al., Dayton, Ohio: news.osu.edu/lost-dogs-found-more-often-than-lost-cats-study-suggests. Weiss, Slater and Lord, Animals, 2012: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4494319. Pew Research Center: pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/newspapers. Medill State of Local News 2025: localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/2025/report. Animal Rescue League of Boston: arlboston.org/pet-theft-prevention.