Newspapers Fact Sheet

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Newspapers Fact Sheet

By Pew Research and Center For Journalism & Media

MORE FACT SHEETS: STATE OF THE NEWS MEDIA

Newspapers are a critical part of the American news landscape, but they have been hit hard as more and more Americans consume news digitally. The industry’s financial fortunes and subscriber base have been in decline since the mid-2000s, and website audience traffic, after some years of growth, has leveled off. Explore the patterns and longitudinal data about U.S. newspapers below.

Audience

The estimated total U.S. daily newspaper circulation (print and digital combined) in 2018 was 28.6 million for weekday and 30.8 million for Sunday, down 8% and 9%, respectively, from the previous year.

Weekday print circulation decreased 12% and Sunday print circulation decreased 13%.

(Note that in this fact sheet and in the chart below, data through 2014 is from Editor & Publisher, which was published on the website of the News Media Alliance (NMA), known at the time as the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). Since then, the NMA/NAA no longer supplies this data, so the Center determined the year-over-year change in total circulation for those daily U.S. newspapers that report to the Alliance for Audited Media and meet certain criteria, as detailed in the note of the chart below. This percentage change was then applied to the total circulation from the prior year – thus the use of the term “estimated total circulation.”)

 Estimated circulation Of U.S. daily newspapers

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Total circulation of U.S. daily newspapersWeekdaySundayWeekday (estimated)Sunday (estimated)19401950196019701980199020002010020 M40 M60 M80 M

Note: To determine totals for 2015 onward, researchers analyzed the year-over-year change in total weekday and Sunday circulation using AAM data and applied these percent changes to the previous year’s total. Only those daily U.S. newspapers that report to AAM are included. Affiliated publications are not included in the analysis. Weekday circulation only includes those publications reporting a Monday-Friday average. For each year, the comparison is for all newspapers meeting these criteria for the three-month period ending Dec. 31 of the given year. Comparisons are between the three-month averages for the period ending Dec. 31 of the given year and the same period of the previous year.

Source: Editor & Publisher (through 2014); estimate based on Pew Research Center analysis of Alliance for Audited Media data (2015-2018).

PEW RESEARCH CENTER

Digital circulation is more difficult to gauge. Three of the highest-circulation daily papers in the U.S. – The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post – have in recent years not fully reported their digital circulation to the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM), the group that audits the circulation figures of many of the largest North American newspapers and other publications. Two of these papers report such digital circulation elsewhere: The New York Times in their financial statements and The Wall Street Journal in reports available on the Dow Jones website. (The Washington Post does not fully report digital circulation in any forum.) But because they may not be counted under the same rules used by AAM, these independently produced figures cannot easily be merged with the AAM data.

Taking these complexities into account, using only the AAM data, digital circulation in 2018 is projected to have risen, with weekday up 6% and Sunday up 8%. According to the independently produced reports from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, both companies experienced substantial gains in digital circulation in the past year: 27% for the Times and 23% for the Journal, on top of large gains in 2017. If these independently produced figures were included with the AAM data in both 2017 and 2018, weekday digital circulation would have risen by 17%.

The addition of these figures would also change the overall picture for combined print and digital circulation. The digital boost was driven by these two large, national brands would still result in an overall drop in circulation year over year, but a smaller one: Overall weekday circulation would have fallen by 1% in 2018 rather than 8%.

Unique Visitors Of Newspaper Websites

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Average monthly unique visitors to the top 50 U.S. newspapers by circulationQ4 2014Q4 2015Q4 2016Q4 2017Q4 201802.5 M5 M7.5 M10 M12.5 M

Note: For each year, the average traffic for each website for October/November/December was calculated; the data point represents the overall average of those numbers. An analysis is of the top 49 newspapers by average Sunday circulation for Q3 2016, Q3 2017 and Q3 2018, according to Alliance for Audited Media data, with the addition of The Wall Street Journal. For each newspaper, the Comscore entity matching its homepage URL was analyzed.
Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, US, Unique Visitors, October-December 2014-2018.

PEW RESEARCH CENTER

Gauging digital audience for the entire newspaper industry is difficult since many daily newspapers do not receive enough traffic to their websites to be measured by Comscore, the data source relied on here. Thus, the figures offered above reflect the top 50 U.S. daily newspapers based on circulation. In the fourth quarter of 2018, there was an average of 11.6 million monthly unique visitors (across all devices) for these top 50 newspapers. This is nearly the same as in Q4 2017 (11.5 million) and 2016 (11.7 million); following two years of growth from 2014 to 2016, newspapers’ website traffic has leveled off. (The list of top 50 papers is based on Sunday circulation but also includes The Wall Street Journal, which does not report Sunday circulation to AAM. It also includes The Washington Post and The New York Times, which make the top 50 even though they do not fully report their digital circulation to AAM. For more details and the full list of newspapers, see our methodology.)

Visit Duration Of Newspaper Websites

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Average minutes per visit for the top 50 U.S. newspapers by circulationQ4 2014Q4 2015Q4 2016Q4 2017Q4 20180123

Note: For each year, the average minutes per visit for each website for October/November/December was calculated; the data point represents the overall average of those numbers. The analysis is of the top 49 newspapers by average Sunday circulation for Q3 2016, Q3 2017 and Q3 2018, according to Alliance for Audited Media data, with the addition of The Wall Street Journal. For each newspaper, the Comscore entity matching its homepage URL was analyzed.
Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, US, Average Minutes Per Visit, October-December 2014-2018.

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Average minutes per visit for the top 50 U.S. daily newspapers, based on circulation, is about 2 1/3 minutes in Q4 2018. This is down 5% from Q4 2017.

Economics

The total estimated advertising revenue for the newspaper industry in 2018 was $14.3 billion, based on the Center’s analysis of financial statements for publicly traded newspaper companies. This is down 13% from 2017. Total estimated circulation revenue was $11.0 billion, compared with $11.2 billion in 2017.

Estimated Advertising And Circulation Revenue Of The Newspaper Industry

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Total revenue of U.S. newspapers (in U.S. dollars)AdvertisingCirculationAdvertising (estimated)Circulation (estimated)196019701980199020002010020 B40 B60 B

Source: News Media Alliance, formerly Newspaper Association of America (through 2012); Pew Research Center analysis of year-end SEC filings of publicly traded newspaper companies (2013-2018).

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In the chart above, data through 2012 comes from the trade group formerly known as the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), now known as the News Media Alliance (NMA). Data from 2013 onward is based on the Center’s analysis of financial statements from publicly traded U.S. newspaper companies, which now number seven and account for more than 300 U.S. daily newspapers, from large national papers to midsize metro dailies and local papers. From 2013 onward, the year-over-year percentage change in advertising and circulation revenue for these companies is calculated and then applied to the previous year’s revenue totals as reported by the NMA/NAA. In testing this method, changes from 2006 through 2012 generally matched those as reported by the NMA/NAA; for more details, see our 2016 report.

Share Of Newspaper Advertising Revenue Coming From Digital Advertising

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Percent of newspaper companies’ advertising revenue coming from digitaladvertising20112012201320142015201620172018010203040

Source: Pew Research Center analysis of year-end SEC filings for publicly traded newspaper companies that break out digital advertising revenue for each year.

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Digital advertising accounted for 35% of newspaper advertising revenue in 2018, based on this analysis of publicly traded newspaper companies. The portion stood at 31% in 2017 – but at 17% in 2011, the first year it was possible to perform this analysis.

Newsroom investment

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment Statistics, 37,900 people worked as reporters, editors, photographers, or film and video editors in the newspaper industry in 2018. That is down 14% from 2015 and 47% from 2004. Median wages for editors in 2018 were about $49,000, while for reporters, the figure was about $35,000.

Employment In Newspaper Newsrooms

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Total number of newsroom employees in the newspaper sector20042006200820102012201420162018020k40k60k80k

Note: The OES survey is designed to produce estimates by combining data collected over a three-year period. Newsroom employees include news analysts, reporters, and correspondents; editors; photographers; and television, video, and motion picture camera operators and editors.
Source: Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics data.

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Find out more

This fact sheet was compiled by Senior Researcher Michael Barthel.

Read the methodology.

Find more in-depth explorations of U.S. newspapers by following the links below: