America’s newspapers aren’t just sick, they’re now on life support.
According to media financial data, circulation has hit the lowest level ever recorded, and the trajectory is only down.
Maybe worse for the media, a Pew Research Center analysis found that the new media’s digital traffic, those much-hyped clicks, has leveled off and time spent on websites is down.
And while digital revenue is up, most of it is going to Facebook and Google, not publishers.
After a long total high of over 60 million subscriptions from the 1960s to the 1990s, circulation has dropped to 28 million daily and 30 million for Sundays.
“Those numbers were down 8% and 9%, respectively, from the previous year, according to the Center’s analysis of Alliance for Audited Media data. Both figures are now below their lowest recorded levels,” said Pew.
Digital advertising rose about 23%, but the bulk went to Facebook, 40%, and Google, 12%.
Traffic to news sites is also an issue, said the analysis. Said Pew:
“Unique visitors to the websites of both newspapers and digital-native news sites showed no growth between the fourth quarters of 2017 and 2018, the second year in which there was no notable growth, according to Comscore, a cross-platform audience measurement company. From 2014 to 2016, traffic rose steadily for both these sectors in the fourth quarter.
“Time spent on these websites has declined as well: The average number of minutes per visit for digital-native news sites is down 16% since 2016, falling from nearly two and a half minutes to about two per visit. The decreases in website audience and time spent per visit come as Americans increasingly say they prefer social media as a pathway to news.”
