Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Newspapers finally eclipsed by online news and ad revenue

Geoff Duncan
By

Newspapers and print publishing have been wondering how they can compete meaningfully with online media for years—and now the question is truly coming to a head. The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism State of the News Media report for 2011 finds that, for the first time, online news readership and advertising revenue in the United States has exceeded that of traditional print newspapers. The study finds that traditional newspapers’ businesses are caught on the horns of two forces: the general economic downturn that dramatically reduced advertisers’ spending, and consumers’ increasing choice to look online for news and information rather than in print publications.

According to the report, some 46 percent of Americans surveyed get their news online at least three times per week, compared to just 40 percent who get news from traditional newspapers or newspapers’ Web sites.

Related Videos

Overall, the study found that advertising revenue for newspapers was down by some 46 percent in 2010 compared to 2006, although it still accounted for some $22.8 billion in revenue. However, while television has started to see a rebound in advertising sales as the economy shows signs of recovery, newspapers have yet to see any uptick in their ad sales. Furthermore, with smaller audiences, newspapers can’t sustain their ad rates.

According to the study, newsrooms are currently about 30 percent smaller than they were in 2000. and news operations are hurt even more by conversion to online advertising, where nearly half the money spent is in search advertising, comparatively little of which targets news. However, the study also notes online news outlets are starting to add reporters, which may be offsetting jobs lost in traditional newsrooms: before recent layoffs, AOL was estimated to have some 500 journalists employed in its Patch operation for local news, and major outlets like Bloomberg and News Corp have added online reporting positions.

Newspapers weren’t the only media outlet to suffer during 2010, according to the report. While online media saw a 17.1 percent increase in its audience during the year, cable television saw a drop of 13.7 percent, and magazines saw an 8.9 percent drop. Audio (like AM/FM radio) saw a 6 percent drop, whereas newspapers only saw a 5 percent drop during the year. Network TV dropped 3.4 percent, and local TV saw the smallest decline of all: 1.5 percent.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Verizon is hand-crafting a tech news site that won’t write about NSA or Net neutrality
verizon self censoring sugarstring

Verizon Wireless is getting into the media business with its own tech and digital culture site to compete with the likes of The Verge, Engadget, and our own Digital Trends. There's just one problem: It won't publish anything related to U.S. Surveillance or Net neutrality.

According to a recruitment email sent to Patrick O'Neill of The Daily Dot -- and a number of tech journalists -- by Sugarstring.com Editor-in-Chief Cole Stryker, there are some strict editorial boundaries at the site. While plenty of topics are fair game, anything that discuss surveillance on U.S. citizens or Net neutrality is forbidden. This is a hard sell, considering how often these topics crawl into just about anything related to the Internet or technology these days. Conveniently, O'Neill also noted from his emails that talking about surveillance in other countries, such as China, is perfectly fine.

Read more
DirecTV shareholders approve $48.5 billion AT&T merger [Update]
att throttles unlimited data customers dish nashville building 3

AT&T's proposed $48.5 billion acquisition of DirecTV took another step forward today, as DirecTV shareholders voted 99 percent in favor of a deal that would see the two juggernauts merge to create a massive multi-system operator with nationwide reach. The vote is the next step in a multi-tiered process on the heels of AT&T's initial filing with the FCC in June, which is still awaiting approval.
The monumental merger officially began after a late Sunday meeting in May, in which both boards of the two companies agreed upon terms to proceed. Under the agreement, AT&T would pay DirecTV shareholders $95 per share in a combination of cash and stock, breaking down to $28.50 and $66.50 per share respectively. Adding DirecTV's total debt to AT&T's books, the deal is worth an approximate $67.1 billion. The agreement will reportedly see DirecTV become a subsidiary of AT&T, though it will retain its own management and infrastructure.

The merger would concentrate a massive 26 million pay-TV subscribers under one roof. If approved, it will no doubt make both parties more competitive in an industry that has been consolidating at an alarming rate. Throughout the review process, the two companies have employed the “everyone else is doing it” defense, claiming that not only are AT&T and DirecTV unable to compete with massive cable MSOs (multi-system operators) in the current media landscape, but also that joining forces is necessary to keep the companies competitive should the similarly controversial $45.2 billion Comcast/Time Warner merger go through as planned.

Read more
Verizon gets slapped with $7.4 million fine for customer privacy violations
verizon vulnerability left millions of users at risk

Back in 2006, Verizon used customer information from 2 million customers in order to create targeted marketing campaigns. While such a strategy isn't a novel idea, Verizon committed the one mistake companies would likely wish they could get away with -- not notice its customers that they could opt out of the campaigns. As a result, the FCC slapped Verizon with a $7.4 million fine.

Related: FiOS problems: the potholes in Verizon's fiber internet "fast lane"

Read more