By the Numbers Essential Data on the Newspaper Industry, 2007-2016
The newspaper industry’s vital statistics over the past decade do not make for pretty reading. As demonstrated by Pew’s annual “State of the News Media” reports and other studies, the sector has faced many challenges during the last ten years in terms of general revenue, circulation, and employment.
In its 2017 report, Pew described an industry in decline, with subscriptions retreating eight percent from 2015, and advertising revenue dropping ten percent to around eighteen billion dollars (plus eleven billion dollars from circulation). There has also been a notable reduction in newsroom employees, with a four percent reduction since 2014 and a thirty-seven percent reduction since 2004 to now account for 41,400 people.
State of the News Media Industry: Key Statistics
| Year | Advertising | Circulation | Newsroom |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | -7.30% | -2.30% | -0.65% |
| 2008 | -14.90% | -0.60% | -3.58% |
| 2009 | -26.60% | -0.20% | -14.4% |
| 2010 | -6.60% | -2.40% | -8.6% |
| 2011 | -7.00% | -0.90% | -2.22% |
| 2012 | -5.90% | 5.00% | -4.99% |
| 2013 | -6.80% | 1.80% | -4.8% |
| 2014 | -6.40% | 1.00% | -5.0% |
| 2015 | -7.80% | 1.20% | -4.1% |
Source: Pew Research Center 42</sup>
What about local?
These numbers—reporting on revenues, circulation, and employment—while valuable, do not tell the entire story. A major challenge for anyone trying to make sense of this data is its aggregated nature, which makes it difficult to deduce trends at a more granular level.
More specifically, what do we know about changes at small newspapers versus major metros, national newspapers versus metros, and weeklies versus small dailies? The answer, based on available and published data, is not very much.
The missing middle: small-market newspapers in the United States
There are currently 7,071 newspapers (daily or weekly) in the United States according to Editor & Publisher. Of those, 6,851 have circulations under 50,000.
This means that upwards of ninety-seven percent of newspapers in the United States can be categorized as “small-market.” Of the weeklies in particular, most, if not all, have a circulation under 30,000.
Using Editor & Publisher’s data, we have endeavored to provide granular information on the types of small-market newspapers that exist in the United States.
Daily Small-Market Newspapers by Circulation
| Circulation | Number of newspapers |
|---|---|
| 25,001–50,000 | 139 |
| 10,001–25,000 | 366 |
| 5,001–10,000 | 396 |
| 5,000 or less | 301 |
| Total small-market dailies | 1,202 |
Source: Editor & Publisher
Weekly Small-Market Newspapers by Circulation
| Circulation | Number of newspapers |
|---|---|
| 35,001–50,000 | 99 |
| 20,001–35,000 | 368 |
| 10,001–20,000 | 758 |
| 5,001–10,000 | 1,084 |
| 1.001–5,000 | 2,843 |
| 1,000 or less | 497 |
| Total small-market community weeklies | 5,649 |
Source: Editor & Publisher
Implications
Three things become clear from these datasets:
The vast majority of newspapers in the country have small circulations of under 50,000. Yet they seldom get much attention from researchers.
There is a tremendous amount of diversity in the size and scale of publications that are considered “small-market.” With a threshold of 50,000, this includes everything from The Chariho Times (Rhode Island, circulation 637) to Newport News’s Daily Press (Virginia, circulation 48,828). This variability cannot possibly be appreciated when circulation numbers and revenues are consolidated into a generic “newspaper industry” category.
We need a regular detailed census of local newspapers, split into different sub-markets, to understand and map a more holistic picture of the U.S. newspaper industry. Unfortunately, many existing surveys are being rolled back,43 meaning that our knowledge of this space will diminish unless others step in.44
The data and the three clear conclusions which derive from it suggest that small-market newspapers represent “a silent majority”: a major cohort that we as a community of researchers know very little about and a community of practitioners that too often—we were told—knows little about itself.
These conclusions also underscore our point that when telling the story of the newspaper industry in the United States we need to show more nuance and specificity, rather than aggregated numbers. While consolidated data has its place, it should be accompanied by sub-sector analysis, which allows us to more effectively understand the diversity of this sector.
Our study seeks to help redress this recent imbalance. We embarked on our research with a relatively simple yet ambitious question: How are small-market newspapers responding to digital disruption?
From the data collected from our research, we also strove to report on the future of small-market newspapers by asking: How can small-market newspapers best prepare for the future?
Through in-depth interviews, secondary research, and an online survey of local journalists, we began to address these all-important questions.