The transition to digital news consumption has hit the newspaper industry hard in recent years. Some national publications have managed to weather the storm in part by attracting digital subscribers, but many local newspapers have been forced to shutter their doors permanently, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.

To gain a clearer picture of how locally focused U.S. newspapers have fared in the digital age, Pew Research Center researchers reexamined data included in the Center’s State of the News Media newspapers fact sheet, excluding four publications that reach a large national audience. (Three of these four newspapers reach national audiences in addition to their respective local audiences.) These four publications – The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today – account for a large share of circulation in the newspaper industry and as such overshadow their locally focused counterparts in the data. Specifically, this analysis looks at economic data from publicly traded newspaper companies’ financial statements (2011-2020 for digital advertising revenue and 2013-2020 for total revenues), circulation data from Alliance for Audited Media (2015-2020), and digital audience data from Comscore (2014-2020). This addendum supplements the State of the News Media newspapers fact sheet, which presents the analysis at the overall industry level.

This locally focused analysis shows that many of the trends apparent in the overall newspaper industry hold true for local U.S. newspapers as well.

Audience

The total combined print and digital circulation for locally focused U.S. daily newspapers in 2020 was 8.3 million for weekday (Monday-Friday) and 15.4 million for Sunday. Each of these numbers is roughly on par with the previous year, but they are still among the lowest reported: Total weekday circulation is down 40% since 2015, the first year available for this analysis. Similarly, total Sunday circulation has fallen 45% since 2015.

Graph of Circulation of Newspapers
This graph from the Pew Research Center shows the declining circulation of newspapers from 2014 to 2020.
Graph of Print Circulation
This graph from the Pew Research Center shows the decline of circulation in print newspapers from 2014 to 2020.
Graph of Digital Circulation
This Pew Research Center graph shows the rise in digital circulation since 2016.
Note: Total circulation includes print and digital circulation. Figures are taken from an analysis of more than 200 newspapers for weekday circulation and more than 400 papers for Sunday circulation. Figures do not include the following publications with a national audience: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Figures are not adjusted according to pre-2015 data from Editor & Publisher and are thus not comparable to the estimated figures published in Pew Research Center’s State of the News Media newspapers fact sheet. Affiliated publications are not included in the analysis. Weekday circulation only includes those publications reporting a Monday-Friday average. Data reflects either three-month averages (2015-2019) or the six-month period ending Sept. 30 (2020).
Source: Pew Research Center analysis of Alliance for Audited Media data.

 

Within those overall declines is a more complex relationship between print and digital circulation. Print weekday circulation in 2020 was down 12% from 2019, while print Sunday circulation declined 10%.

In contrast, digital weekday circulation was up 30% in 2020, and digital Sunday circulation climbed 29%. The 2020 increases for digital circulation are the greatest year-over-year increases for digital since 2015. Overall, digital weekday circulation has grown 21% since 2015, and digital Sunday circulation has increased 27%.

Print, meanwhile, experienced a steady decline in both weekday and Sunday circulation between 2015 and 2020, falling 55% for print weekday during this time and 54% for print Sunday.

To get a clearer picture of the digital audience for locally focused publications, researchers reexamined the Comscore data included in the State of the News Media newspapers fact sheet by removing newspapers with a national audience from the analysis (The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today). This updated analysis of locally focused daily U.S. newspapers includes the remaining top 46 publications based on their circulation.1

Note: For each year, the average traffic for each website during the fourth quarter (October-December) was calculated; the data point represents the overall average of those numbers. Analysis is of the top 46 newspapers by average Sunday circulation for Q3 2015-2020, according to Alliance for Audited Media data, excluding The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, which have a large national audience. For each newspaper, the Comscore entity matching its homepage URL was analyzed.
Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, U.S., Unique Visitors, October-December 2014-2020.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, there were an average of 7.6 million monthly unique visitors to these 46 local news sites, up 9% from 2019. (When the four national publications above are included, newspapers received 13.9 million unique online visitors in the fourth quarter of 2020, up 14% from 2019.)

The average number of monthly unique visitors to local news websites has increased 44% since the fourth quarter of 2014, the first year in our data.

The increase in the number of visitors to locally focused news sites has been accompanied by a simultaneous decline in the duration of those visits – a pattern that exists for the newspaper industry overall. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the average minutes per visit to the websites of local papers was 1.8 minutes, compared with 2.1 minutes in Q4 2019. This is a 13% year-over-year decline, the steepest drop in minutes per visit since Q4 2014, the first year in our data.


Graph of visitor time spent on news sites
Pew Research Center graph of visitor time spent on news sites, which is on the decline.
Note: For each year, the average minutes per visit for each website during the fourth quarter (October-December) was calculated; the data point represents the overall average of those numbers. Analysis is of the top 46 newspapers by average Sunday circulation for Q3 2015-2020, according to Alliance for Audited Media data, excluding The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, which have a large national audience. For each newspaper, the Comscore entity matching its homepage URL was analyzed.
Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, U.S., Average Minutes Per Visit, October-December 2014-2020.

Overall, the average duration of visits to local news websites has declined 41 seconds since Q4 2014, similar to the overall decrease of 45 seconds in the broader industry.

Revenue

The total advertising revenue for locally focused U.S. daily newspapers in 2020 was $1.07 billion, based on the Center’s analysis of financial statements for publicly traded newspaper companies.2 This is down 40% from 2019, much steeper than the 25% decline the overall newspaper industry experienced during the same time. Total circulation revenue was $1.1 billion in 2020 for local newspapers, compared with $1.5 billion in 2019. As is also seen in the overall industry, 2020 was the first year local newspaper advertising revenue fell below circulation revenue.

(Note: USA Today is included in the revenue data)

Total Revenue for local newspapers
Advertising revenue for locally focused newspapers dips below circulation for the first time in 2020.
Note: Data shows the dollar amount of each revenue type according to analysis of year-end SEC filings. Figures do not include The New York Times, The Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal, which have a large national audience. USA Today is included as part of Gannett’s overall revenues. Dollar values are not adjusted according to pre-2013 data from News Media Alliance and thus are not comparable to the estimated figures published in Pew Research Center’s State of the News Media newspapers fact sheet.
Source: Pew Research Center analysis of year-end Securities and Exchange Commission filings of publicly traded newspaper companies (2013-2020).

Digital advertising accounted for 35% of advertising revenue for locally focused U.S. newspapers in 2020, based on this analysis of publicly traded newspaper companies. That share is roughly on par with the 39% of ad revenue coming from digital ads in the overall industry. For local newspapers, the share of ad revenue coming from digital has grown steadily from 15% in 2011, the first year in our data.

Graph of digital revenue for local newspapers
Share of advertising revenue coming from digital continues to grow for locally focused newspapers

Note: Figures do not include The New York Times, The Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal, which have a large national audience. USA Today is included as part of Gannett’s overall revenues.
Source: Pew Research Center analysis of year-end Securities and Exchange Commission filings for publicly traded newspaper companies that break out digital advertising revenue for each year (2011-2020).