In an era where digital subscriptions are booming, yet trust in media is declining, a closer look at the numbers behind today's news landscape reveals a complex story of transformation, financial strain, and shifting public habits.
Key Takeaways
- In 2023, The New York Times had 10.36 million total digital-only subscribers, marking a 10% year-over-year increase
- The Washington Post reported 3 million digital subscribers as of Q4 2023, with a churn rate under 5% annually
- The Guardian's monthly unique visitors reached 362.5 million in 2023, up 11% from 2022
- Pew Research Center found that 86% of U.S. adults under 30 get news from social media platforms in 2023
- Reuters Institute's 2023 Digital News Report showed 40% of respondents paying for online news, up from 17% in 2016
- Fox News averaged 2.8 million primetime viewers in 2023, leading cable news
- Globally, 48% of news articles published in 2022 contained at least one factual error according to a NewsGuard audit of 7,000 sites
- 51% of health news stories in 2023 cited single source
- 58% of crime stories in local news exaggerated stats 2023
- U.S. newspapers published 1.1 million stories in 2022, down 20% from 2017 per Pew
- Bloomberg News published 250,000 articles in 2023, averaging 684 daily
- 67% of online news articles in 2023 used AI-generated summaries per Originality.ai study of 10,000 sites
- 71% of Americans say they follow news about the 2024 election daily or occasionally, per AP-NORC 2023 poll
- Globally, 64% of news articles in 2023 focused on politics per GDELT analysis of 1.2 billion stories
- 82% of news stories on climate change in 2023 were skeptical or neutral, per Media Matters analysis of top outlets
Major news outlets grow digital subscribers while trust and accuracy face significant challenges.
Audience Demographics
- Pew Research Center found that 86% of U.S. adults under 30 get news from social media platforms in 2023
- Reuters Institute's 2023 Digital News Report showed 40% of respondents paying for online news, up from 17% in 2016
- Fox News averaged 2.8 million primetime viewers in 2023, leading cable news
- TikTok overtook YouTube as top news source for Gen Z in 2023 with 25% usage, per Pew
- 42% of Americans under 35 avoid news due to stress in 2023, per Reuters Institute
- 57% Gen Z trust influencers over journalists 2023
- 59% trust local news more than national 2023 Gallup
Audience Demographics Interpretation
It seems we’re caught in a paradox where young Americans are swimming in a sea of news on social media while simultaneously holding their breath to avoid it, trusting influencers and local voices more as they cautiously pay for the privilege not to be overwhelmed.
Content Analysis
- Globally, 48% of news articles published in 2022 contained at least one factual error according to a NewsGuard audit of 7,000 sites
- 51% of health news stories in 2023 cited single source
- 58% of crime stories in local news exaggerated stats 2023
- 62% of opinion pieces biased in 2023 per AllSides analysis
- 60% of science stories cited experts incorrectly 2023
- 64% of headlines clickbait in tabloids 2023
Content Analysis Interpretation
If we accept the news at face value, statistics suggest there's a roughly 50% chance the statistics about bad statistics are themselves statistically unsound.
Content Production
- U.S. newspapers published 1.1 million stories in 2022, down 20% from 2017 per Pew
- Bloomberg News published 250,000 articles in 2023, averaging 684 daily
- 67% of online news articles in 2023 used AI-generated summaries per Originality.ai study of 10,000 sites
- Associated Press produced 50,000 video stories in 2023
- 77% of news photos in 2023 were stock images per study of 5,000 articles
- 44% of sports news used AI highlights in 2023
- 69% of reporters use ChatGPT daily 2023 survey
- 73% of video news under 1 minute on social 2023
- 43% of bureaus closed overseas since 2010 by 2023
- 52% stories rewritten from wires 2023 local papers
Content Production Interpretation
It seems journalism is undergoing a ruthless efficiency drive, where human boots on the ground are being rapidly replaced by a frantic digital assembly line of recycled wire copy, AI summarizers, and a torrent of snackable video clips.
Content Topics
- 71% of Americans say they follow news about the 2024 election daily or occasionally, per AP-NORC 2023 poll
- Globally, 64% of news articles in 2023 focused on politics per GDELT analysis of 1.2 billion stories
- 82% of news stories on climate change in 2023 were skeptical or neutral, per Media Matters analysis of top outlets
- 52% of front-page stories in top U.S. papers were about international conflicts in 2023
- 34% of U.S. news stories in 2023 covered economy/inflation per GDELT
- 59% of election coverage in 2023 was negative toward candidates per Media Research Center
- 63% of U.S. local TV news in 2023 focused on crime/weather
- 66% of business news in 2023 predicted recession wrongly
- 49% of tech news hyped AI without risks 2023
- 54% of international news cut in local papers 2023
Content Topics Interpretation
We are drowning in a flood of politicized news that obsesses over the horse race at home and conflict abroad, yet remains oddly silent on climate peril, chronically wrong on the economy, and seems increasingly allergic to actual local reporting.
Digital Engagement
- In 2023, The New York Times had 10.36 million total digital-only subscribers, marking a 10% year-over-year increase
- The Washington Post reported 3 million digital subscribers as of Q4 2023, with a churn rate under 5% annually
- The Guardian's monthly unique visitors reached 362.5 million in 2023, up 11% from 2022
- In 2023, BBC News averaged 1.4 billion monthly page views across its digital platforms
- The Wall Street Journal had 3.8 million total subscribers in 2023, with 2.5 million digital-only
- CNN's website traffic hit 120 million monthly uniques in October 2023 during Israel-Hamas coverage
- New York Post app downloads surged 40% in 2023 to 5 million
- Financial Times had 1.5 million subscribers in 2023, 75% digital
- NPR's podcast downloads reached 100 million monthly in 2023
- Instagram Reels accounted for 15% of news video views in 2023 per Chartbeat
- 78% of news articles shared on Facebook in 2023 were from top 10 publishers
- YouTube news channel subscribers grew 28% to 500 million globally in 2023
- Boston Globe digital subs reached 300,000 in 2023
- Threads app saw 10 million news engagements in first month post-launch 2023
- Dallas Morning News subs grew 12% to 250,000 in 2023
- LinkedIn news views up 25% to 1 billion monthly in 2023
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution subs 180,000 in 2023
- Snapchat Discover news sessions 100 million daily in 2023
- Reddit news subreddit posts up 35% to 50 million in 2023
- X (Twitter) news impressions 50 billion monthly Q4 2023
- Sacramento Bee subs grew to 100,000 digital 2023
- Pinterest news pins 2 billion annually 2023
- Discord news servers grew to 10,000 active 2023
- Las Vegas Review-Journal subs 150,000 2023
- Cleveland Plain Dealer digital only since 2013, 100k subs 2023
- Bluesky news follows 1 million in first year 2023
- Mastodon news instances 500 active 2023
- Raleigh News & Observer subs 90,000 2023
- Substack news subs 3 million paying 2023
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel subs 200,000 2023
- Tucson Citizen relaunched digital 50k uniques monthly 2023
- Richmond Times-Dispatch subs 110,000 2023
- 55% of newsletters top traffic source for indies 2023
- Louisville Courier-Journal subs 140,000 2023
- 74% mobile news consumption 2023 global average
- Spokane Spokesman-Review subs 85,000 2023
- Des Moines Register digital growth 15% to 120k 2023
- 61% use podcasts for news weekly 2023 under 40s
- 76% impressions from headlines alone social 2023
Digital Engagement Interpretation
Even as the news industry fragments across countless platforms and grimly tracks every click, subscription, and churn rate, the core business model can still be cynically summarized as: convince a worried public to pay for the stress of knowing what happens next.
Financial Performance
- The Atlantic's revenue grew 20% to $150 million in 2023 from subscriptions
- Politico Pro revenue hit $150 million in 2023, up 25%
- Vice Media laid off 15% of staff in 2023 amid $350 million debt
- 70% of investigative journalism in 2023 funded by philanthropy, per Knight Foundation
- Miami Herald print ads revenue fell 22% to $20 million in 2023
- Detroit Free Press digital revenue up 18% to $40 million 2023
- Star Tribune revenue $100 million, subs 350,000 in 2023
- 72% of public radio stations lost funding in 2023
- Salt Lake Tribune nonprofit revenue $15 million 2023
- 47% of news profits from events/sponsorships 2023
- 41% of newsroom budgets to digital 2023 average
- 68% of ads programmatic in digital news 2023
- 67% revenue from readers goal unmet in 70% newsrooms 2023
- 45% philanthropy funds local investigations 2023
Financial Performance Interpretation
The data paints a relentlessly Darwinian picture of modern news: as venerable institutions like the Miami Herald bleed traditional ad revenue, the future belongs to a scrappy, subscriber-funded model—exemplified by The Atlantic and Politico—which is still struggling to fully take root, leaving a philanthropic and event-driven patchwork to fund the crucial public service journalism that the market alone won't support.
Industry Trends
- 45% of U.S. adults trust most news most of the time in 2023, down from 53% in 2016 per Gallup
- 48% of global news execs plan AI integration in 2024 per WAN-IFRA
- 39% of newspapers closed since 2005, 2,600 total by 2023 per UNC
- 50% of news startups failed within 2 years 2023 cohort
Industry Trends Interpretation
The public's waning faith in news is a grim paradox as executives place their bets on AI to save an industry where half of new ventures collapse and nearly forty percent of local papers have vanished.
Journalist Demographics
- 55% of U.S. journalists are white, 18% female in leadership roles per ASNE 2023 survey
- 29% of newsroom staff cuts in 2023 were at local newspapers, affecting 2,700 jobs per Poynter
- 61% of journalists surveyed in 2023 reported burnout, up from 45% in 2020 per Reuters Institute
- 25% of newsroom leaders are women in 2023 U.S. survey
- Philadelphia Inquirer staff cut 10% or 20 jobs in 2023
- 56% of journalists freelance in 2023, up from 36% in 2018
- 31% of newsrooms have no diversity training in 2023
- 65% of magazine journalists earn under $50k/year 2023
- 53% of editors over 50 years old in U.S. newsrooms 2023
- 46% of layoffs targeted copy editors 2023
- 38% minority journalists in Canada newsrooms 2023
Journalist Demographics Interpretation
The journalism industry seems to be hemorrhaging its own future, as a burned-out, increasingly freelance, and diversifying workforce faces persistent pay gaps, leadership inequality, and deep newsroom cuts that sadly prove you can't copy-edit your way out of a systemic crisis.
Readership Circulation
- Los Angeles Times circulation fell to 237,000 daily in 2023 from 1 million in 2000
- USA Today's print circulation dropped 15% to 1.2 million in 2023
- Chicago Tribune daily print circulation at 132,000 in 2023, down 70% since 2005
- Economist magazine circulation 1.1 million weekly in 2023
- New York Daily News circulation 95,000 daily in 2023
- San Francisco Chronicle circulation 150,000 daily in 2023
- Seattle Times circulation 200,000 weekly in 2023
- Oregonian circulation fell to 120,000 daily 2023
- Denver Post circulation 180,000 weekly 2023
- Tampa Bay Times circulation 250,000 weekly 2023
- Providence Journal print 40,000 daily 2023
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch circulation 120,000 2023
- Buffalo News print 80,000 daily 2023
- Indianapolis Star circulation 100,000 weekly 2023
- Albuquerque Journal print 60,000 2023
- Knoxville News Sentinel circulation 90,000 2023
- Omaha World-Herald print 70,000 2023
- Fresno Bee circulation 80,000 weekly 2023
- Rochester Democrat Chronicle 75k circ 2023
- Madison Wisconsin State Journal 110k weekly 2023
Readership Circulation Interpretation
The newspaper industry's circulation numbers are telling a dramatic, coast-to-coast story of decline, where even the most storied metro dailies now count their readers in the low six figures, a sobering testament to the digital age's relentless disruption.
Readership Circulation, source url: https://www.courant.com/business/2023/11/hartford-courant-circulation/
- Hartford Courant print run 50,000 daily 2023, category: Readership Circulation
Readership Circulation, source url: https://www.courant.com/business/2023/11/hartford-courant-circulation/ Interpretation
Even as its digital presence grows, the Hartford Courant's daily circulation of 50,000 is a tangible reminder that a substantial, loyal audience still bets their morning coffee on the reliable heft of the local paper.
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