The long-term health of the newspaper industry has been in doubt for years, and the sharp drop in circulation in 2015 suggests things aren’t about to improve.
Weekday circulation declined by seven percent in 2015, and Sunday circulation fell by a four percent, according to data presented in the Pew Research Center’s “State of the News Media 2016” report.
It is the greatest drop in circulation for both weekend and Sunday circulation since 2010. The decline may just as well be referred to as a “recession,” Pew reported.
“At the same time, advertising revenue experienced its greatest drop since 2009, falling nearly 8 percent from 2014 to 2015. Fully one-fourth of advertising revenue now comes from digital advertising, but not because of growth in that area: Digital advertising revenue fell 2 percent in 2015,” the report added.
“It’s just that non-digital advertising revenue fell more, dropping 10 percent in 2015. 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.”
There were also 126 fewer newspapers in 2014 than in 2004, according to Editor & Publisher’s DataBook.
Overall, Pew concluded, the newspaper industry continues to decline, even though several outlets have enjoyed recent increases in traffic, particularly on mobile.
In contrast, things were far better for those in the news television business.
“Even the third-place cable news outfit MSNBC raked in tidy (and increasing) profits; advertising revenues for local broadcast stations are projected to grow in the coming years; and revenues for network evening news programs grew in 2015,” reported the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple.
