Newspapers closing, news deserts growing for beleaguered news industry

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Some 136 newspapers in the United States have closed in the past year, news deserts are expanding and web traffic to the nation’s top newspapers has dropped markedly this decade, according to a report issued Monday that struggles to find hope for the beleaguered news industry.

While entrepreneurs are launching digital news sites, often backed by philanthropies, they haven’t sprouted at a rate that makes up for the losses, the report from Northwestern University said.

Taking a step back for an even broader look at the industry is even more troubling. Since 2005, the numbers of newspapers published in the United States has dropped from 7,325 in 2005 to 4,490 now, said the Medill State of Local News report. Daily newspaper circulation that averaged between 50 and 60 million people at the turn of the century now stands at just over 15 million.

An estimated 365,460 people worked at newspapers in 2005, and now that number is down to 91,550, the report said. Two decades ago, 71% of journalists worked at newspapers and now just 29% of the nearly 42,000 working journalists are at newspapers.

https://apnews.com/article/newspapers-closing-media-industry-report-traffic-b0a3a14510ffe104da836d46432c2678

[Silent Type]

1. Wonder if hatred for media is responsible?

[SouthBayDem]

2. In one part, yes.

Another is that people (who are otherwise happy to pay for food, electricity, or car insurance) expect news to be given out for free with someone else (advertisers for instance) paying for the labor.

[Midwestern Democrat]

9. Advertising always provided the bulk of newspaper/magazine revenue - while making people pay for newspapers/magazines

covered some of the costs, it actually served a more important function - it provided proof to the advertisers of the number of readers - the advertisers knew that if people were paying for it, they were reading it. I suppose in the early days of the internet there had been a false hope that advertising revenue on the internet would be comparable to that historically enjoyed by print media, but it wasn't even close - a glossy cigarette ad on the back cover of Newsweek brought in far more revenue than an internet pop up ad.

[Keepthesoulalive]

4. Young people don't read newspapers

And supposedly they are not enamored of books. Newspapers have been declining for years and if it’s owned by a conglomerate they don’t do local news.
Then you add perceived and real media bias end game.

[regnaD kciN]

5. "Who needs to read when you've got TikTok and YouTube...?"

[SouthBayDem]

7. As a 90s kid I still count as "young".

When Clinton won re-election I was in kindergarten.

My family subscribed to the local newspaper in print until 2008. So I've developed a habit of respecting the printed paper - and when I'm traveling and need offline reading material I'll buy the paper.

[Keepthesoulalive]

8. I was a news junkie

The newspapers became smaller fewer stories more sketchy adds. Because of consolidation not much local news. I have moved to a smaller town and our local paper is not fit to wrap fish. I get my news from other sources and my purse loves me. Fortunately or unfortunately our children and some adults are being led and deceived. Critical thinking is a thing of the past.

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. That's a good part of it

Last edited Wed Oct 22, 2025, 03:16 AM - Edit history (1)

On many social media sites that have a political bent -- including this one ‐- you'll find post after post after post criticing "the media" (Newspapers? TV news? News magazines? What?) for not covering issues the posters think should be covered or not writing them as they think they should be written.

There's nothing the least bit new about this. Customers on my paper route more than 50 years ago complained to me about the paper, as if they thought I could do something about it. And 50 years ago the complaints were already very old and tired.

Editors and reporters get it: Everybody wants a newspaper tailored for them. Thry all think it 's an easy job that they could do better, or just as well.snd they want a lot fewer ads.

These complaints were par for the course before political social media multiplied the fuck out of them. Circulation dropped significantly, and when that happens, publishers panic and do exactly the wrong things: lay off news saff, making coverage skimpier; raise subscription and newsstand prices; raise ad rates while telling ad reps to bring in more customers. And, when none of that works, sell out to a cobglomerate that turns, say, five formerly local papers in a 50-mile radius into "McNews," ach with two or three local stories in each issue and the rest of them carbon copies of one another. In short, they save "the product" by destroying it. (They always referred to the paper as "the product" because they were no longer newspaper people, but garden-variety CEOs.)

I was one of the editors who got fired, then watched helplessly as the rest of it happened. It happened because you were never satisfied with what we offered, and the suits couldn't think of another remedy for their losses than to offer you less.

[SouthBayDem]

3. David Simon, former journalist and creator of HBO's "The Wire", warned in 2009:

Content matters. And you must find a way, in the brave new world of digitization, to make people pay for that content. If you do this, you still have a product and there is still an industry, a calling, and a career known as professional journalism. If you do not find a way to make people pay for your product, then you are—if you choose to remain in this line of work—delusional.

I know that content wants to be free on the Internet. I know that the horse was long ago shown the barn door and that, belatedly, the idea of creating a new revenue stream from online subscriptions seems daunting and dangerous. I know that commentary—the froth and foam of print journalism—sells itself cheaply and well on thousands of blogs. I know that the relationships between newspapers and online aggregators—not to mention The Associated Press and Reuters—will have to be revisited and revised. True, all true.

From an essay "Build the Wall", in the July/Aug. 2009 Columbia Journalism Review.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

10. GOP says "YAY"