Declining number are following news closely fact sheet shows

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 29/11/2023

Not only newspapers’ print circulation is falling. Also overall, digital traffic to US newspapers’ websites is declining. The average monthly number of unique visitors to the websites of the US top 50 newspapers declined 20% to under 9 million in the fourth quarter last year, down from over 11 million a year earlier, according to Comscore data. 

A declining share of US adults are following the news closely, according to Pew Research Center surveys.: “And audiences are shrinking for several older types of news media – such as local TV stations, most newspapers and public radio – even as they grow for newer platforms like podcasts, as well as for a few specific media brands.”

The Pew’s key findings:

• For the most part, daily newspaper circulation nationwide – counting digital subscriptions and print circulation – continues to decline, falling to just under 21 million in 2022, according to projections using data from the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM). Weekday circulation is down 8% from the previous year and 32% from five years prior, when it was over 30 million. Out of 136 papers included in this analysis, 120 experienced declines in weekday circulation in 2022.
• While most newspapers in the United States are struggling, some of the biggest brands are experiencing digital growth. AAM data does not include all digital circulation to three of the nation’s most prominent newspapers: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. But while all three are experiencing declines in their print subscriptions, other available data suggests substantial increases in digital subscriptions for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. 

• Overall, digital traffic to newspapers’ websites is declining. The average monthly number of unique visitors to the websites of the country’s top 50 newspapers (based on circulation, and including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post) declined 20% to under 9 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, down from over 11 million in the same period in 2021, according to Comscore data. The length of the average visit to these sites is also falling – to just under a minute and a half in the last quarter of 2022.
• Traffic to top digital news websites is not picking up the slack. Overall, traffic to the most visited news websites – those with at least 10 million unique visitors per month in the fourth quarter of a given year – has declined over the past two years. 
• Across several years of data, there has been a drop in audiences for local TV news, affecting morning, evening and late-night time slots alike. 
• Audience trends are a little more mixed when it comes to TV news on cable and network stations. 
• Advertising revenue for newspapers has continued to decline steadily. In 2020, projections of circulation revenue surpassed advertising revenue for the first time since at least 1956 (the first year for which data is available), and that pattern has held steady in recent years. 
• The makeup of advertising revenue is changing as well: Nearly half of newspaper companies’ advertising revenue (48%) came from digital advertising in 2022, up from 19% in 2012.