Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Data and trends about key sectors in the U.S. news media industry
Since 2004, Pew Research Center has issued an annual report on key audience and economic indicators for a variety of sectors within the U.S. news media industry. These data speak to the shifting ways in which Americans seek out news and information, how news organizations get their revenue, and the resources available to American journalists as they seek to inform the public about important events of the day. The press is sometimes called the fourth branch of government, but in the U.S., it’s also very much a business – one whose ability to serve the public is dependent on its ability to attract eyeballs and dollars.
Over the years, the Center’s approach to these indicators has evolved along with the industry, carefully considering the metrics, sectors and format in which the data appear. Instead of a single summary report, our approach is to roll out a series of fact sheets showcasing the most important current and historical data points for each sector – in an easy-to-digest format – a few at a time. (State of the News Media reports from 2004-2018 are archived as PDFs and available here.)
In the U.S., roughly nine-in-ten adults (93%) get at least some news online (either via mobile or desktop), and the online space has become a host for the digital homes of both legacy news outlets and new, “born on the web” news outlets.
News media made by and for Black and Hispanic Americans – the two largest racial and ethnic minority groups in the U.S. – have been a consistent part of the country’s news landscape. Explore statistics on the Hispanic- and Black-oriented news industry.
In 2022, both prime-time and daytime cable news audiences increased for Fox News but decreased for CNN, MSNBC and Newsmax.
Financially, advertiser expenditures for the news programs of the three major networks have declined substantially since 2020.
Local TV companies generated more revenue in 2022 than in 2021, consistent with a cyclical pattern in which advertising revenue rises in election years and falls in non-election years.
Newspapers are a critical part of the American news landscape, but they have been hard hit as more and more Americans consume news digitally.
The audio news sector in the U.S. is split by modes of delivery: traditional terrestrial (AM/FM) radio and digital formats such as online radio and podcasting.
Hundreds of local and regional radio and television stations comprise the U.S. public media system.
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Just 50% of U.S. adults now get news regularly from television, down from 57% a year prior in early 2016.
Read 10 key findings from recent Pew Research Center reports about today’s digital news media landscape.
As of August 2017, 43% of Americans report often getting news online, just 7 points lower than the 50% who often get news on television.
Roughly two-thirds of Americans ages 65 and older now get news on a mobile device (67%), a 24-percentage-point increase over the past year.
Some major newspapers reported a sharp jump in digital subscriptions, but the industry as a whole faced ongoing challenges in 2016.
As of 2016, Sinclair, Nexstar, Gray, Tegna and Tribune owned an estimated 37% of all full-power local TV stations in the country.
The State of the News Media in 2016 is uncertain, with daily newspapers looking shakier than ever, digital advertising and audiences continuing to grow, and TV news mostly seeing gains in revenue.
On cellphones, longer news stories get about twice the engaged time from readers as shorter pieces do. They also get roughly the same number of visitors.
The number of journalism projects funded through Kickstarter has grown over time, totaling more than 650 projects and nearly $6.3 million by mid-September 2015.
Between 2009 and 2014, the number of Washington-based reporters for local newspapers accredited by the Senate to cover Congress declined by 11%.
