TheThe Rise Rise and Fall of and Fall of NewspapersNewspapersA Century of Power

and Persuasion.

Chain Chain NewspapersNewspapers

When one owner (individual or corporation) acquires more than one newspaper, it’s called a chain. The larger chains grew until they dominated the market.

For The Spanish-For The Spanish-American War -New American War -New York City -- ca 1896York City -- ca 1896The New York Journal – 700,000

circulation.Pulitzer’s New York World –

800,000 circulation.The New York Sun – 150,000

circulation.

Total circ-- 1,650,000

Against The War -- Against The War -- New York City ca. New York City ca. 18961896

The New York Herald – 100,000 circulation

The New York Post – 25,000New York Tribune – 75,000New York Times – 25,000.

Total circ. 225,000

Pro-war Pro-war outnumbersoutnumbers anti-waranti-war

By 1.4 million readers

These are BIG numbers for 1896

Two Newspapers Two Newspapers Dominate the Dominate the MarketMarketJournal and World 1.5 million circulation

All the rest -- five papers 350,000 circulation

Ownership Ownership TodayToday

1550 U.S. Cities have daily newspapers

100 U.S. Cities have two or more dailies

43 cities have two independent dailies

57 cities have two dailies -- both owned by the same

companyFewer owners, fewer voices.

THE POINT: FEWER OWNERS, THE POINT: FEWER OWNERS, FEWER VOICESFEWER VOICES

Biggest Chain -- GannettBiggest Chain -- Gannett

100 NewspapersTV and radio holdings USA Today

Year # of chains # of chain # of dailiesowned dailies

1900 8 27 26001930 55 311 19501960 109 552 17631970 157 879 17491990 125 1124 1647

Today 120 1130 1550

Top ChainsTop Chains•Gannett -- 90 (including USA Today, Olympian, etc.)

Dow Jones -- 20 (including Wall Street Journal) Thompson -- 183 dailies (including papers in Canada, Britain, etc.) New York Times --20 (including NYT and Boston Globe) Knight-Ridder -- 31 dailies (including 49% of Seattle Times) Newhouse -- 26 dailies (including Portland) Tribune Co. -- 14 (including Chicago Tribune -- recently acquired Times Mirror with 10 more , including LA Times) Scripps-Howard -- 23 Hearst -- 12 (including PI in Seattle) Cox -- 20 News Corp. -- 3 (Murdoch, includes Boston Herald) Media News Group -- 18 Ingersoll -- 37

Death in the afternoon Death in the afternoon --the decline of --the decline of

afternoon newspapersafternoon newspapers

Television Becomes Advertising Television Becomes Advertising MeccaMecca

•The Year Television First Had More Advertising Revenues Than Newspaper:

1960

Competition

•Big companies swallow little ones

•True competition declines

•The race for profits undermines journalism

New York City – Consolidation and New York City – Consolidation and CompetitionCompetition

New York population 1900: 3,437,000

Number of newspapers: 7 New York population

2000 : 8,008,000 So how many

newspapers should they have based on population increase?

Newspaper Scene in New York circa Newspaper Scene in New York circa 20002000

Number of newspapers: 3

New York Daily News, New York Post, New York Times.

You can say 4 if you count Newsday which is actually a Long Island paper.

Weeklies: Village Voice, New York Observer

Percent of Daily Newspapers Percent of Daily Newspapers Owned by Largest Newspaper Owned by Largest Newspaper GroupsGroups

Percent of Daily Circulation Percent of Daily Circulation Belonging to Largest Newspaper Belonging to Largest Newspaper Groups Groups

Compare largest groups ownership to circulation

Ownership: 39%

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Circulation: 69%

So big groups control more readership

Project for Excellence in JournalismProject for Excellence in Journalism1850 K Street NW, Suite 8501850 K Street NW, Suite 850Washington, DC, 20006Washington, DC, 20006

“Largest newspaper groups” means the 22 top newspaper chains