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The decline of newspaper revenues and circulation

Radio plays a bit part in this analysis (in one graph) but some interesting parallels could be drawn to what's been happening to newspapers. The Updated (and scary) Circulation and Revenue Figures for Newspapers
It should be noted that this article was written in June, 2018 so more than 5 years ago now, but it's interesting, contains information and data that's still relevant and I remember reading others based on that or similar Pew data.

In my opinion there are 2 very telling graphs in that article:

- The first is the graph that just shows total circulation numbers. It's fairly easy to see that circulation numbers, especially the "Sunday paper" increased in number every year, and the fall off starts in the mid 1990s, which is when more and more people got internet access in their homes and smaller businesses. The decrease in circulation becomes even more pronounced in the mid 2000s as more homes got high speed internet and smartphones started to become widely available, then things like social media started to become more popular and widespread. Simply put, people were finding faster, more convenient (and free to them in many cases) ways to get their news. Most "Papers" did adopt an online presence for their content but, at least at the beginning, didn't do the best job of monetizing it. National and international news especially could be found from many sources, and though some did implement paywalls and subscriptions, in many cases it was too late. If content on XYZ news company's website was suddenly only available via a subscription, local news items in that area could usually also be found via other news sites that were still open - TV, radio station, independent news companies, etc.

- The graph showing total revenue illustrates a VERY sharp decline just before and during the 2008 recession. That's also about the time ad revenues for many radio stations fell off sharply.
 
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I suppose I am a bit of an anomaly, as I do buy a daily newspaper, the Florida Times-Union.

What I have seen in the seven years of living in the greater Jacksonville area, much to my disappointment, is that the number of pages (perhaps more correctly, the number of column inches) has decreased, but the price for the paper has increased. The news stand price for daily is $2.50, Sunday is $5.00.

Years back, especially when I was living in the greater DC area, the coupons in the Sunday Washington post would almost always pay for the Sunday paper, but those days also seem to be disappearing.
 
How about this one readers can get direct access of national and international stories on the Associated Press and Reuters website/apps. Whenever a
local newspaper uses an international and national stories it's from them.
Radio plays a bit part in this analysis (in one graph) but some interesting parallels could be drawn to what's been happening to newspapers. The Updated (and scary) Circulation and Revenue Figures for Newspapers




Also AP makes some of its money from press releases. Companies like Business Wire and PRNewswire pay for access to appear on the AP site. Yes it's like the old classified section of local newspapers. I understand that usually media outlets like local newspapers, TV and radio pay for access to reuse Reuters and AP national news stories as it is usually.
 
How about this one readers can get direct access of national and international stories on the Associated Press and Reuters website/apps. Whenever a
local newspaper uses an international and national stories it's from them.
No, not just from them. There are quite a few others.


Also AP makes some of its money from press releases. Companies like Business Wire and PRNewswire pay for access to appear on the AP site. Yes it's like the old classified section of local newspapers. I understand that usually media outlets like local newspapers, TV and radio pay for access to reuse Reuters and AP national news stories as it is usually.
There are others:

United Press International Top News, Latest headlines, Latest News, World News & U.S News - UPI.com

TASS https://tass.com/?utm_source=google...m_campaign=google.com&utm_referrer=google.com

FrancePress The news hub

Al Jazeera Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera

Prensa Latina NOTICIAS - Prensa Latina

Xhinhua Xinhua – China, World, Business, Sports, Photos and Video | English.news.cn

These are among the larger ones, but not the only ones.
 
Most American newspapers have one wire service coming into their office: AP. Used to be UPI was a fierce competitor, but the day the New York Times announced it was dropping UPI service (and small was the amount of AP or UPI copy that ran in the Times; it was mostly for sports agate and financial reports), the owner-publisher of my paper called AP to subscribe and then UPI to drop it. He said the Times' move was the death knell, and he was right. Today's UPI is several owners removed from the original (which still owes me $120 for freelancing).

As David notes, you can find all the others online, but AP's the largest in terms of bureaus, fulltime and freelance personnel, etc.

What's killed newspaper circulation and revenue is simple: free news online, free classifieds (Craigslist), eBay for sales of stuff that would have been listed in classifieds, and the shinkage of display advertising from department stores on both a national and local basis. And, with rare exceptions in online revenue from subscriptions, the bell will not be unrung.
 
Most American newspapers have one wire service coming into their office: AP. Used to be UPI was a fierce competitor, but the day the New York Times announced it was dropping UPI service (and small was the amount of AP or UPI copy that ran in the Times; it was mostly for sports agate and financial reports), the owner-publisher of my paper called AP to subscribe and then UPI to drop it. He said the Times' move was the death knell, and he was right. Today's UPI is several owners removed from the original (which still owes me $120 for freelancing).
UPI tried for many years to keep up with AP, finally giving up in the 90's. Ultimately it didn't make sense to pay for two wire services reporting on the same stories at roughly the same time.
 
How about this one readers can get direct access of national and international stories on the Associated Press and Reuters website/apps. Whenever a
local newspaper uses an international and national stories it's from them.





Also AP makes some of its money from press releases. Companies like Business Wire and PRNewswire pay for access to appear on the AP site. Yes it's like the old classified section of local newspapers. I understand that usually media outlets like local newspapers, TV and radio pay for access to reuse Reuters and AP national news stories as it is usually.
 



Here is what I was supposed to update and say that Associated Press has a donate link and Reuters has a press release page to make additional revenue besides waiting for other publishers and broadcasting entities to pay royalties to them.
 



Here is what I was supposed to update and say that Associated Press has a donate link and Reuters has a press release page to make additional revenue besides waiting for other publishers and broadcasting entities to pay royalties to them.
There are some stories made possible by nonprofits and the articles mention this and ask people to support them.

I will say it's not looking good when I story appearing on Sunday says what WILL happen on Friday. Why didn't they update withe what did happen?
 
One annoying habit newspapers have these days is printing articles unchanged that appeared online the day before.

So Saturday's paper, for example, will have information about an event that "will" happen on Friday. It already happened by the time the paper was delivered. Or in my case, since no Saturday Charlotte Observer is printed, by the time it is "delivered".
 
One annoying habit newspapers have these days is printing articles unchanged that appeared online the day before.

So Saturday's paper, for example, will have information about an event that "will" happen on Friday. It already happened by the time the paper was delivered. Or in my case, since no Saturday Charlotte Observer is printed, by the time it is "delivered".

It's the same with the Wedding Festivals ads I used to see going towards Greenville in Mauldin-- the dates were long past for the event to be held, yet the billboards would stay up indefinitely.
 
It's the same with the Wedding Festivals ads I used to see going towards Greenville in Mauldin-- the dates were long past for the event to be held, yet the billboards would stay up indefinitely.
Unless the space on the billboard has been sold to someone else, billboard companies won't "white it out." That would be too expensive. With the new digital billboards that problem has been eliminated.
 
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