Profits at most U.S. newspaper companies have been on a steady decline for years, as advertising budgets have dried up and print subscription numbers have diminished. A recent analysis by British media trade nonprofit Press-Gazette shows how the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated that death spiral.
The Press Gazette’s analysis, which looked only at daily print circulation numbers—excluding digital subscription numbers, as well as Sunday or other weekend editions—found that the top 25 newspapers in the U.S. saw their daily print circulations drop by 20 percent (or about 840,000 readers) between the first quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of this year, from a combined circulation of 4.2 million to a total circulation of 3.4 million.
National papers suffered the steepest declines. According to the Press Gazette report, the three largest titles in the country—The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today—lost a combined total circulation of more than a half-million between Q1 2020 and Q1 2021.
USA Today fared worst of any paper in the top 25. That Gannett property, with its hotel-heavy distribution, saw year-over-year daily print circulation declines of 62 percent, accounting for an average weekday circulation loss of about 303,000 papers.
The Wall Street Journal, which now boasts the largest daily print circulation in the U.S., lost 21 percent of its circulation since 2020’s first quarter, or about 208,000 papers. The New York Times, which has seen marked success focusing on its digital subscription businesses in recent years, saw its print circulation decline by 12 percent or about 48,000 papers.
Other top publishers that took big hits during this period included the New York Daily News (down 29,000, or 30 percent), the Arizona Republic (down 20,000, or 20 percent), the Chicago Sun-Times (down 13,000, or 18 percent) and New Jersey’s Star-Ledger (down 10,000 or 15 percent).
The Press Gazette’s analysis was based on circulation data supplied by newspaper companies to media transparency non-profit The Alliance for Audited Media.
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.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
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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Sep. 2, 2021, by Joe Honick
Comfirming my comment below is what I call the RIGHT WING REVISIONARY CAMPAIGN, featuring the most slanderous language about President Biden. The Chief Spokesperson is none other than Kayleigh McEnany who used to do the same when Trump was in the White House. It's time for the Democrats and any decent media to take note of the crap being financed daily by the sector of Republicans bent on making the naiton forget January 6 and Trump's desertion of the Kurds to be left at the mercy of Turks and Syrians.