By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: With the rise of online media and the demand for instantaneous knowledge, it appears that newspapers and periodicals are slowly becoming a thing of the past.
Print newspaper and magazines have been in jeopardy for years now, with staples such as Newsweek recently shutting down all forms of its print publications because of declining sales (they do still exist online, however). With yesterday’s surprise announcement that The Washington Post is being purchased by Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com for $250 million, the future of one of the nation’s premiere daily newspapers has once again been thrown into question.
Here are some facts and figures regarding newspaper readership in the United States (figures courtesy of the Alliance for Audited Media and the Newspaper Association of America):
2,378,827 – the daily circulation of The Wall Street Journal, which enjoys the widest of any daily periodical in the US.
1,865,318 – the daily circulation of The New York Times, the second-highest circulation in the country.
8 – the national ranking of The Washington Post’s circulation, which stands at 838,014 daily.
$70 million – the amount spent by Boston Red Sox owner John Henry to purchase The Boston Globe last week, on August 3rd, from the New York Times Company.
382,452 – daily circulation of The Boston Globe, ranking it at 25th nationally.
2002 – year that Google News was launched in its earliest form. Many attribute Google and its ability to find news on any topic instantaneously as being the beginning of the end for many print newspapers.
17 years – difference in median age between those who read most of their news on a mobile device and those who read their news in print. Mobile device readers tend to skew 17 years younger.
83% — growth of mobile-exclusive news readers in 2012, with a median adult age of 33.
23 — percentage of Americans willing to spend $5 a month for an online-only local paper rather than a print one. The number isn’t much lower (18%) when asked if the price was $10 instead. (source)
46 – percentage of Americans who get their news from online sources at least three times a week, which is higher than the 40 percent who get their news exclusively from a newspaper or the paper’s website. (source)
24 – percentage of mobile news readers who look at news specifically for sports. The number is 22% for those who do it almost exclusively for traffic updates, but it goes as high as 37% for those using mobile devices to find restaurants or businesses. (source)
30 – percentage of those who say that losing their local paper would not be a major impact on their lives. (source)
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com