Noting that previous research on avoidance fails to explain adequately the forces behind reading or not reading, a study examined the avoidance gratifications of southern Illinois newspaper readers and nonreaders. Data for the study were collected during the course of a more general newspaper readership survey in Carbondale. In telephone interviews, 408 subjects described their newspaper usage. Almost 15% of the sample identified themselves as not usually reading a newspaper, a figure that nearly tripled when subjects were asked if they had read a paper the day of the interview. Three groups were developed from the responses: nonreaders, casual readers, and regular readers. The groups used a three-point scale to rate 12 avoidance statements, which included the following: (1) reading a newspaper is too time consuming, (2) newspaper stories are biased and untrustworthy, (3) newspapers have too much advertising, (4) most newspaper news has already been heard from other media, and (5) newspapers have little of interest related to daily life. Overall, nonreaders responded with significantly higher levels of agreement to these avoidance statements, education was the only significant demographic variable, and nonreaders tended to have only a high school education or less. Factor structures suggest that different patterns of cognition exist for readers and nonreaders, and that perceptions of newspapers by nonreaders are not as clear as those of readers. (HTH)