The fading newspaper industry is on a firing pace of 1,000 staffers a year, slammed by advertising cuts that have helped to kill 100 outlets since 2004, but the digital media industry is soaring, backed by nearly $60 million in advertising, according to a new report.
The news was delivered by the Pew Research Center: “Though the industry has been struggling for some time, 2015 was perhaps the worst year for newspapers since the Great Recession and its immediate aftermath. Daily circulation fell by 7 percent, the most since 2010, while advertising revenue at publicly traded newspaper companies fell by 8 percent, the most since 2009. At the same time, newsroom staffing fell by 10 percent in 2014.”
Pew’s “State of the Media 2016” revealed that 20,000 newspaper staffers have been dumped in the last 20 years, and that there is little evidence the trend is ending or even slowing though paper digital sites are doing better.
“In 2014, the latest year for which data were available, newsroom employment also declined 10 percent, more than in any other year since 2009. The newspaper workforce has shrunk by about 20,000 positions, or 39 percent, in the last 20 years,” said the report.
		
Even the big outlets have been hit. Pew found that revenue among the New York Times has dropped, for example.
Circulation also fell the most since 2010, and digital deliveries didn’t help many.
Pew found that print remains the way most papers deliver their news despite a huge switch to digital platforms. “Print remains a vital part of newspapers’ distribution picture. In 2015, print circulation makes up 78 percent of weekday circulation and 86 percent of all Sunday circulation. Only three newspapers had more average weekday digital circulation than average weekday print circulation in the same period,” said the huge survey.
The growth in digital has been explosive and now accounts for a third of all media advertising, said Pew. And half of that goes to mobile advertising.
The report also showed growth in audiences and revenue for cable and network TV.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
