Digital subscriptions are critical to local news publishers’ bottom lines, but new findings suggest that an increasing number of these subscribers are “zombie” readers who seldom consume what they pay for, highlighting an unnerving trend among readers who remain unengaged even though they may still pay for local news.
Recent data analysis conducted by Northwestern University’s Medill Spiegel Research Center found that, on average, nearly half of local news outlets’ digital subscribers (49 percent) don’t visit the news sites they pay for even once a month.
An additional 54 percent said they visit the website of the news outlets they pay for only one day per month or fewer, 58 percent reported visiting two days a month or fewer, 69 percent visited seven days or fewer, and 79 percent visited 15 days or fewer.
The Medill Spiegel Research Center’s findings come on the heels of a viral Feb. report, which found that about 42 percent of The Arizona Republic’s digital-only subscribers didn't read a single article on the paper’s website in the last month. That Gannett property, which was founded in 1890, is the Grand Canyon State’s largest daily newspaper.
Sharing these findings via Twitter, CNN host Brian Stelter wrote, “I think I’ve lost the passwords for 42% of the digital outlets I subscribe to.”
Research for the Medill Spiegel Research Center study was based on data analysis of local news outlets in 45 U.S. markets.
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
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The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
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Mar. 2, 2021, by Joe Honick
This is an interesting and worthwhile bit of information, but I wonder if it were ever different in past years with respect to newapapers and other media. Except for huge headlines threatening war, the end of the world or the winners of the World Series, other studies of the times seem to indicate most people paid attention to the earlier muck rakers like Drew Pearson, Father Coughlin et al on radio and in the papers.
The biggest concern today is how many Americans take time to read more than today's funnies, do crossword puzzles...anything to avoid the "news" they no longer trust....among reasons PR and Marketing folks have to work harder. The bigger danger once again is the monopoly of media by few like Hearst, Murdoch etc. Might be useful for Jon to take his interview skills to the bosses of those media with some hard questions.