Readership Declines

Overview

Most experts have agreed that newspapers are facing an ongoing crisis as individuals, particularly young adults, continue to turn to alternate news sources. Readership declines, reduced staff, drastic revenue cuts, and changing lifestyles have all contributed to the crisis. So many newspapers have closed their doors that 2009 was labeled “the year the newspaper died,” with 105 newspapers shutting down and ten thousand jobs lost in that year alone. In 2017, combined print and online newspaper circulation had declined to 31 million for weekday editions and 34 million for Sunday editions. The Pew Research Center reported that these figures had further declined to 24.3 million for weekday editions and 25.8 million for Sunday editions by 2020. Newspapers fought back through such measures as increasing rates and developing an online presence.

From the late 1920s to the late 1940s, American newspapers achieved almost perfect presentation, with the average household subscribing to 1.3 daily newspapers. The 1920s introduced radio to American homes, and over the course of the decade, 60 percent of American households purchased a radio. Gathering around the radio became a nightly event for many families. Despite the success of the new competitor, most newspapers continued to thrive. Many newspapers were owned by families with strong community ties or by individuals like William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, who had become household names.

After World War II, technology continued to advance rapidly, and by the 1950s, television had replaced both newspapers and radio as the chief news source for many homes. In 1950, only 9 percent of American households owned televisions. By the end of the decade, that number had climbed to 87.1 percent. In 1970, only 6 percent of sixth graders had their own televisions. By 2005, 77 percent had televisions in their rooms. Over time, newspapers began covering more celebrity news to keep up with demands of readers. The introduction of so-called reality television in the 1990s blurred the lines between news and entertainment still further, leading many people to blame those factors for the decline of traditional media.

A number of other reasons have also been given for readership declines. After the last of the Baby Boomers was born in 1964, the population began to decline, and US family size slowly decreased. Newspapers that had been printing both morning and afternoon editions dropped the afternoon edition, and other newspapers closed. Some experts have said that the decline was inevitable and that newspapers could not have prevented it by any means.

By 1970, for the first time, more American households owned televisions than read daily newspapers, although local newspapers continued to sell well because they often provided news and advertising that was not elsewhere available. A Simmons Market Research survey found that between 1967 and 1987, the number of adult readers who reported having read a newspaper the day before fell from 76 to 65 percent. Other sources reported a 71 to 58 percent drop between 1967 and 1987. In 1997, the Newspaper Association of America reported that the number of daily readers had dropped to 58 percent. Another study conducted that same year revealed that 68 percent of study participants had read a newspaper in the preceding week, but it placed the number of readers who had read a newspaper the previous day at only 24 percent. Scarborough Research reported that daily newspaper readership plummeted from 59 percent in 1998 to 48 percent in 2007. In 2008, a Pew Research Center report placed daily adult newspaper readership at 34 percent and daily online newsreaders at 29 percent. Researchers also identified a gender element in readership declines, suggesting that women have often felt underrepresented by mainstream newspapers. Female newspaper readership dropped from 55.2 in 1998 to 45.9 in 2009. Male readership during that same period declined from 58.6 to 48.4 percent.

In 1980, the Columbus Dispatch became the first newspaper to establish an online presence, making it available through CompuServe. Six Degrees was established as the first social media site in 1997. Two years later, Mosaic was introduced as the first commercial web browser, opening up a new avenue for improved graphics, hyperlinks, and direct internet access. That same year, 4,900 newspapers created online editions. At the same time, weblogs (blogs) began to entice readers away from newspapers. In 2005, Huffington Post debuted as an online-only newspaper. By 2014, USA Today was reporting an average circulation of 3.3 million for its print edition and 54.5 million for its online version. As the internet and online news flourished, newspaper readership continued a slow decline, and advertising revenue was lost in response to readership declines and increasing advertiser interest in online news sources. In 2000, newspapers reported $48.67 billion in advertising revenue. By 2007, advertising revenue had declined to $43.84 billion.

Scholars have largely attributed the chief reason for newspaper readership decline to the rise of the internet and the popularity of home computing and mobile devices that provide ongoing access to news that may be tailored to users’ specific interests. Between 1990 and 2010, overall newspaper readership declined from 62.3 million to 43.4 million, a decline of 30 percent. The largest readership decline was among young people aged eighteen to twenty-four, but many researchers have noted that number has been declining since 1967, long before the internet entered American homes. In 1966, in a survey of students attending the University of California, Los Angeles, 60 percent identified keeping up with the news and political events as important. By 2003, the number of college students agreeing with this statement had declined to 24 percent. In 2004, surveys began to reveal for the first time that the 25–34 age group was reading print newspapers at a slightly lower rate than the 18–24 age group but were reading internet news at a higher rate.

As newspaper readership declined, digital readership expanded, climbing 7.4 percent between 2010 and 2011. By 2018, 98 percent of those in the 18–29 age group and 97 percent in the 30–49 group accessed the internet daily. Contemporary young adults have tended to classify reading newspapers as a leisure activity rather than as something they do every day. By contrast, daily internet access among all young adults climbed from 70 percent in 2000 to 98 percent in 2018.

Further Insights

All researchers do not agree that the internet has been the chief reason for the decline in newspaper readership. Instead, they have maintained that lifestyle changes, overall technological advances, and the wide availability of newspaper sources are to blame. News has become so widely available that it is impossible for one individual to have time enough to read all of it. Some experts have argued that readership declines are a reflection of overall declines in participation in community activities, and have cited incidences such as the closure of Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, and declines in high school bands and parent–teacher organizations. Although many newspapers have been forced to close their doors, small market newspapers have generally fared better than others because of the sense of community they help to develop, and some are still owned by individuals and families living in the community. Researchers have noted that newspapers in many other countries, particularly Finland and Japan, continue to attract large readerships, even among young people.

Broadcast television simultaneously suffered a decline in viewers. The State of the Media Report issued by the Project for Excellence in Journalism recorded a 44 percent decline in viewership since 1980 for ABC, CBS, and NBC news. Online sources, particularly social media, have not always provided accurate news coverage because of the lack of fact checking, the ubiquity of personal and often radicalized opinion, and the “echo chamber” effect. Some experts have suggested that these declines may produce citizens less vested in government accountability and social responsibility in the future.

College students have been considered less likely than other groups to read newspapers on a daily basis because many have full schedules of classes and campus activities, and college students are likely to have either full- or part-time jobs. Students who live on campus may not be members of the local community, and they may not be property owners. Thus, they may lack interest in reading a local newspaper. In a 2009 study of 179 college students, Gregory Hoplamazian and John Feaster found that the amount of time college students spent reading local newspapers was linked to the time they spent on campus, their level of participation in campus events, their memberships in campus groups, and their having friends who also lived on campus. Students were more likely to access news sites from cell phones than from any other source. Print editions of newspapers, which were most often read on mornings at home, were found to be most useful for checking headlines and passing time. Computers were used to check the weather and find news on specific subjects. Television was the preferred source for watching news, and radio was generally accessed only to listen to music or when other media were unavailable.

Discourse

To offset readership and revenue declines for print editions, many newspapers, such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal began requiring subscriptions to fully access their websites. Most sites began allowing a limited number of free visits per month, and some do not charge for visitors accessing sites from search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Subscription rates have limited the growth of online readership because general news is widely available on free sites. In 2012, the Pew Research Center reported that only 9 percent of social media users state that they receive news from traditional news sites. Some 36 percent obtained it from other websites, 32 percent by searching for specific news, and 29 percent accessed news from various apps. In 2022, the Pew Research Center reported that 82 percent of US adults either often or sometimes use their smartphone, computer, or tablet to read the news.

Another way in which newspapers have attempted to deal with readership declines has been to create online versions of print editions. Some sites also offer a range of special features, such as eye-catching graphics, links to additional information, and searchable archives. Some newspapers have also developed a presence on social media, using sites like Facebook and Twitter to interact with readers. Sheree Josephson and Jessica S. Miller (2015) studied the eye movements and survey responses of participants when looking at summary headlines and answering questions posed by newspapers on Facebook and Twitter, discovering that readers were more likely to pay attention to statements than to questions on Twitter, which limited tweets to 280 words. Survey participants were more inclined to answer questions on Facebook, which does not limit word count

The ultimate goal for newspapers on social media sites is to have their offerings shared so that exposure is expanded to larger audiences. In July 2014, Facebook boasted 829 million active users, resulting in 3.2 billion comments and 4.5 billion likes per day. The average Facebook user at that time spent only 12 minutes per month on news sites. With 271 million active users, Twitter averaged five hundred million tweets per day. Only 13 percent of Facebook users and 27 percent of Twitter users stated that they received news from traditional news organizations. On Twitter, users may follow journalists, newspapers, and broadcast stations. Facebook also made it possible for users to follow such sources without friending them. However, many Facebook walls were flooded with unwanted posts. The popularity of social media sites made them a popular vector for newspapers with an online presence.

Phil Meyer, Francesca Dillman Carpentier, and Temple Northrup (2009) contended that in response to declining readership and revenues in the twenty-first century, many newspapers began to “harvest” their market positions by raising prices on subscriptions and individual copies, reducing staff, and lowering the overall quality of content while depending on name loyalty to retain readerships. These scholars contended that harvesting flies in the face of all acceptable business models, maintaining that reduced quality has led large numbers of subscribers to turn to other news sources. They argued that the business model developed by Hal Jurgensmeyer of Knight Ridder is a more valid model for newspapers.

Jurgensmeyer suggested that newspapers should continue to do what they do best, providing influence commercially through attracting readers and socially through taking an active role in community life. He insisted that any newspaper that fulfills both a commercial and social role will appeal to advertisers, thereby increasing revenue. In addition to increasing reader and advertising revenue, Jurgensmeyer believed that a proper business model for newspapers should maximize owner contributions, raw materials, miscellaneous supplies, and labor. Meyer and colleagues (2009) noted that the revenue of Hispanic newspapers climbed from almost nothing in 1970 to 1.1 billion in 2006 using a similar model. They suggested that in drastically cutting newspaper staffs, many mainstream newspapers have significantly weakened community ties.

Scott A. Anthony and Clark G. Gilbert (2004) suggested that newspapers facing disappearing readerships, shrinking revenues, declining stock prices, and mass layoffs could learn much from paying attention to other industries that have dealt with significant transformations. They noted that the computer industry experienced a seismic shift with the revolution brought on by home computing. In 1984, only 8.2 percent of American households owned a computer. By 1993, that number had risen to 22.8 percent. Companies that did not adapt to rapid changes fell by the wayside or were taken over by more successful companies. Anthony and Gilbert argued that newspapers failed to act when it first became evident that a transformation was taking place, and they are still failing to allocate adequate resources to dealing with the transformed industry. They recommended that instead of depending on traditional business models that no longer work, newspapers need to adopt new models based on reality.

Terms & Concepts

Echo Chamber: The term has been used to explain the fact that Internet users tend to visit websites that reflect their own views and to cluster together in social media groups composed of those who share the same attitudes. Users may become convinced that their views are shared by everyone since they are echoed back by like-minded individuals.

Market Harvesting: From a business perspective, the term refers to the practice of reducing or terminating investments in a newspaper, product, or line of business to allow owners and investors to receive maximum profits in their endeavors.

Reality Television: An umbrella term for shows that range from glimpses into daily life to biographies of real people to court television, reality television has been part of the entertainment sector since the 1990s. Mainstream media is prone to blaming reality television for lowering the quality of traditional news reporting.

Six Degrees: A social media site that operated between 1997 and 2000. The name is based on the notion that all individuals are connected to one another within six acquaintances. A popular game “six degrees from Kevin Bacon” was developed to allow individuals to explore these connections.

Social Media: Forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos). Dominant social media sites include Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and WeChat.

Small-Market Newspapers: The term refers to newspapers with circulations below fifty thousand. They are often referred to simply as local newspapers because they cover specific cities or regions. Because they require less penetration than larger newspapers, small-market newspapers are able to dominate their markets, and they continue to attract advertising revenue while larger newspapers are losing advertising to online sites.

Bibliography

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