How Many People Read the New York Times?

More FACT SHEETS: STATE OF THE NEWS MEDIA

Newspapers are a critical part of the American news landscape, merely they have been striking hard every bit more than and more Americans consume news digitally. The industry's financial fortunes and subscriber base take been in turn down since the mid-2000s, but their website audience traffic has once again begun to grow. Explore the patterns and longitudinal information well-nigh U.Due south. newspapers below.

Audience

The estimated total U.Southward. daily paper circulation (impress and digital combined) in 2020 was 24.3 one thousand thousand for weekday and 25.8 meg for Sunday, each downward six% from the previous twelvemonth – though with some caveats, equally detailed beneath and in a new Decoded post.

Total estimated apportionment of U.S. daily newspapers

Twelvemonth	Weekday	Sun	Weekday (estimated)	Sunday (estimated)
1940	41,132,000	32,371,000
1945	48,384,000	39,860,000
1946	50,928,000	43,665,000
1947	51,673,000	45,151,000
1948	52,285,000	46,308,000
1949	52,846,000	46,399,000
1950	53,829,000	46,582,000
1951	54,018,000	46,279,000
1952	53,951,000	46,210,000
1953	54,472,000	45,949,000
1954	55,072,000	46,176,000
1955	56,147,000	46,448,000
1956	57,102,000	47,162,000
1957	57,805,000	47,044,000
1958	57,418,000	46,955,000
1959	58,300,000	47,848,000
1960	58,882,000	47,699,000
1961	59,261,000	48,216,000
1962	59,849,000	48,888,000
1963	58,905,000	46,830,000
1964	sixty,412,000	48,383,000
1965	60,358,000	48,600,000
1966	61,397,000	49,282,000
1967	61,561,000	49,224,000
1968	62,535,000	49,693,000
1969	62,060,000	49,675,000
1970	62,108,000	49,217,000
1971	62,231,000	49,665,000
1972	62,510,000	50,001,000
1973	63,147,000	51,717,000
1974	61,877,000	51,679,000
1975	threescore,655,000	51,096,000
1976	threescore,977,000	51,565,000
1977	61,495,000	52,429,000
1978	61,990,000	53,990,000
1979	62,223,000	54,380,000
1980	62,202,000	54,676,000
1981	61,431,000	55,180,000
1982	62,487,000	56,261,000
1983	62,645,000	56,747,000
1984	63,340,000	57,574,000
1985	62,766,000	58,826,000
1986	62,502,000	58,925,000
1987	62,826,000	lx,112,000
1988	62,695,000	61,474,000
1989	62,649,000	62,008,000
1990	62,328,000	62,635,000
1991	lx,687,000	62,068,000
1992	60,164,000	62,160,000
1993	59,812,000	62,566,000
1994	59,305,000	62,295,000
1995	58,193,000	61,229,000
1996	56,983,000	lx,798,000
1997	56,728,000	lx,486,000
1998	56,182,000	sixty,066,000
1999	55,979,000	59,894,000
2000	55,773,000	59,421,000
2001	55,578,000	59,090,000
2002	55,186,000	58,780,000
2003	55,185,000	58,495,000
2004	54,626,000	57,754,000
2005	53,345,000	55,270,000
2006	52,329,000	53,179,000
2007	50,742,000	51,246,000
2008	48,597,000	49,115,000
2009	45,653,000	46,164,000
2010	--	--
2011	44,421,000	48,510,000
2012	43,433,000	44,821,000
2013	forty,712,000	43,292,000
2014	40,420,000	42,751,000
2015			37,711,860	twoscore,955,458
2016			34,657,199	37,801,888
2017			thirty,948,419	33,971,695
2018			28,554,137	thirty,817,351
2019			25,952,584	27,389,866
2020			24,299,333	25,785,036

Pew Inquiry Center

(Note that the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM), the source of this circulation data and the group that audits the apportionment figures of many of the largest North American newspapers and other publications, changed their reporting menstruation in 2020 from a three-month menses to a six-calendar month period. As such, in 2020, the comparison is between average circulation for the 3 months catastrophe September 2019 and the six months ending September 2020. Additional details about how the circulation estimate is calculated can exist plant in the methodological note beneath.)

Within this total circulation figure, weekday print circulation decreased 19% and Sunday print circulation decreased 14%.

Digital circulation is more difficult to guess. Using simply the AAM data, digital circulation in 2020 is projected to have risen sharply, with weekday up 27% and Sunday upward 26%. But iii of the highest-circulation daily papers in the U.S. – The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post – accept in recent years not fully reported their digital circulation to AAM. The Times and the Journal provide information on digital subscriptions in publicly available reports, but since this is non the same as apportionment and may not be counted under the same rules used past AAM, these independently produced figures cannot hands be merged with the AAM data. If these independently produced figures were included with the AAM data in both 2019 and 2020, weekday digital apportionment would have risen even more sharply, by 38%.

Estimated newspaper apportionment using two different data sources

Date	AAM only	NYT/WSJ subscriptions plus AAM
2016	34,657,199	34,657,199
2017	30,948,419	33,291,558
2018	28,554,137	32,961,320
2019	25,952,584	32,359,455
2020	24,299,333	35,644,533

Pew Inquiry Eye

The improver of these figures would also change the overall picture for combined impress and digital circulation. In previous years, including these subscription numbers with the AAM circulation data would not have changed the overall circulation picture, as total apportionment would still pass up. In 2020, withal, including the Times' and the Periodical'southward digital subscribers reverses the trend: Total weekday circulation would ascent by ten%, not fall by 6%, as is the case when looking strictly at the AAM data. For comparison, the chart to a higher place shows estimated total weekday circulation using just the AAM information and when the digital subscriber numbers from the Times and the Journal are included over the past five years. For more details on how this affects our estimates and conclusions, see this post on our Decoded blog.

Unique visitors of newspaper websites

Year	Average monthly unique visitors
Q4 2014	8,233,544
Q4 2015	9,709,071
Q4 2016	11,734,536
Q4 2017	11,527,744
Q4 2018	11,600,124
Q4 2019	12,149,197
Q4 2020	thirteen,866,542

Pew Research Middle

Gauging digital audience for the entire paper industry is difficult since many daily newspapers do non receive plenty traffic to their websites to be measured by Comscore, the data source relied on here. Thus, the figures offered above reverberate the pinnacle 50 U.S. daily newspapers based on circulation. In the fourth quarter of 2020, in that location was an boilerplate of 13.9 million monthly unique visitors (across all devices) for these top 50 newspapers. This is up fourteen% from 2019, which itself was v% higher than 2018. (The listing of top 50 papers is based on Dominicus apportionment but includes The Wall Street Periodical, which does non study Sun circulation to AAM. Information technology likewise includes The Washington Mail and The New York Times, which make the pinnacle 50 even though they practise not fully report their digital apportionment to AAM. For more details and the full list of newspapers, see our methodology.)

Visit duration of newspaper websites

Year	Average minutes per visit
Q4 2014	2.59
Q4 2015	two.59
Q4 2016	2.45
Q4 2017	2.44
Q4 2018	2.32
Q4 2019	2.10
Q4 2020	ane.82

Pew Research Middle

Average minutes per visit for the tiptop 50 U.S. daily newspapers, based on apportionment, is a fiddling less than two minutes in Q4 2020. This is down near 45 seconds from when we commencement began tracking this in Q4 2014.

Economics

The total estimated advertising revenue for the newspaper industry in 2020 was $9.6 billion, based on the Center's analysis of financial statements for publicly traded paper companies. This is down 25% from 2019. Total estimated apportionment revenue was $11.1 billion, compared with $11.0 billion in 2019. This is the first year in our data that circulation acquirement has been higher than advertising revenue.

Estimated advertising and circulation acquirement of the newspaper industry

Year	Advertising	Circulation	Advertising (estimated)	Apportionment (estimated)
1956	$3,223,000,000	$1,344,492,000
1957	$three,268,000,000	$one,373,464,000
1958	$3,176,000,000	$1,459,013,000
1959	$three,526,000,000	$1,549,576,000
1960	$iii,681,000,000	$ane,604,228,000
1961	$iii,601,000,000	$one,684,319,000
1962	$3,659,000,000	$1,819,840,000
1963	$3,780,000,000	$1,901,820,000
1964	$4,120,000,000	$ane,983,809,000
1965	$four,426,000,000	$ii,023,090,000
1966	$4,865,000,000	$2,109,050,000
1967	$iv,910,000,000	$2,180,242,000
1968	$v,232,000,000	$two,288,215,000
1969	$5,714,000,000	$ii,425,446,000
1970	$5,704,000,000	$2,634,402,000
1971	$six,167,000,000	$2,833,320,000
1972	$half-dozen,939,000,000	$2,929,233,000
1973	$7,481,000,000	$iii,037,820,000
1974	$7,842,000,000	$three,581,733,000
1975	$viii,234,000,000	$3,921,515,000
1976	$9,618,000,000	$4,087,303,000
1977	$ten,751,000,000	$4,310,236,000
1978	$12,213,000,000	$iv,534,779,000
1979	$thirteen,863,000,000	$iv,950,542,000
1980	$14,794,000,000	$5,469,589,000
1981	$sixteen,527,000,000	$6,206,141,000
1982	$17,694,000,000	$6,656,661,000
1983	$xx,581,000,000	$vii,044,098,000
1984	$23,522,000,000	$seven,368,158,000
1985	$25,170,000,000	$7,659,297,000
1986	$26,990,000,000	$8,052,148,000
1987	$29,412,000,000	$8,399,032,000
1988	$31,197,000,000	$eight,046,287,000
1989	$32,368,000,000	$8,370,324,000
1990	$32,280,000,000
1991	$30,349,000,000	$8,697,679,000
1992	$30,639,000,000	$9,163,534,000
1993	$31,869,000,000	$nine,193,802,000
1994	$34,109,000,000	$9,443,217,000
1995	$36,092,000,000	$9,720,186,000
1996	$38,075,000,000	$9,969,240,000
1997	$41,330,000,000	$10,065,642,000
1998	$43,925,000,000	$10,266,955,000
1999	$46,289,000,000	$10,472,294,000
2000	$48,670,000,000	$10,540,643,000
2001	$44,305,000,000	$10,783,078,000
2002	$44,102,000,000	$xi,025,896,000
2003	$46,156,000,000	$eleven,224,362,000
2004	$48,244,000,000	$x,988,651,000
2005	$49,435,000,000	$10,746,901,000
2006	$49,275,402,572	$ten,548,344,000
2007	$45,375,000,000	$ten,294,920,096
2008	$37,848,257,630	$ten,086,956,940
2009	$27,564,000,000	$10,066,783,026
2010	$25,837,698,822	$10,049,360,689
2011	$27,078,473,864	$9,989,064,525
2012	$25,316,461,215	$10,448,561,493
2013			$23,587,097,435	$10,641,662,892
2014			$22,077,809,951	$x,744,324,061
2015			$20,362,238,293	$10,870,292,720
2016			$18,274,943,567	$10,910,460,499
2017			$16,476,453,084	$11,211,011,020
2018			$14,346,024,182	$10,995,341,920
2019			$12,864,064,241	$11,016,643,128
2020			$ix,601,389,155	$11,053,729,516

Pew Research Center

CORRECTION: (February. 17, 2022): The post-obit sentences were updated to reflect the correct full estimated advertising acquirement for the paper industry in 2020 and the pct change from 2019: "The total estimated advertising revenue for the paper industry in 2020 was $9.6 billion, based on the Heart's analysis of financial statements for publicly traded newspaper companies. This is downwards 25% from 2019."

In the chart, "Estimated ad and circulation revenue of the newspaper industry," the 2019 and 2020 advertising and apportionment acquirement numbers have too been updated to reflect these changes.

These changes did non affect the report's overall findings.

In the chart above, data through 2012 comes from the trade group formerly known as the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), at present known as the News Media Alliance (NMA). Data from 2013 onward is based on the Center's analysis of fiscal statements from publicly traded U.S. newspaper companies, which in 2020 numbered 5 and accounted for more than 300 U.S. daily newspapers, from large national papers to midsize metro dailies and local papers. From 2013 onward, the year-over-year per centum change in advertising and apportionment acquirement for these companies is calculated so applied to the previous year's acquirement totals as reported by the NMA/NAA. In testing this method, changes from 2006 through 2012 generally matched those as reported by the NMA/NAA; for more than details, see our 2016 study.

Share of newspaper advertizement acquirement coming from digital advertisement

Twelvemonth	Advertisement revenue coming from digital advertising
2011	17%
2012	xix%
2013	20%
2014	21%
2015	25%
2016	29%
2017	31%
2018	35%
2019	35%
2020	39%

Pew Inquiry Middle

Digital advertising accounted for 39% of newspaper advertising revenue in 2020, based on this assay of publicly traded newspaper companies. The portion stood at 35% in 2019 – but at 17% in 2011, the outset yr it was possible to perform this analysis.

Newsroom investment

According to data from the Agency of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, thirty,820 people worked as reporters, editors, photographers, or motion picture and video editors and operators in the newspaper industry in 2020. That is down 12% from 2019 and 57% from 2004. Median wages for editors in 2020 were virtually $l,000, while for reporters, the figure was about $36,000.

Employment in newspaper newsrooms

Year	Full
2004	71,640
2005	72,600
2006	74,410
2007	73,810
2008	71,070
2009	60,770
2010	55,260
2011	54,050
2012	51,430
2013	48,920
2014	46,310
2015	44,120
2016	42,450
2017	39,210
2018	37,900
2019	34,950
2020	30,820

Pew Research Center

Year	News analysts, reporters and journalists	Editors	Photographers	Television, video, and movie camera operators and editors
2012	$36,381	$52,114	$40,899	$53,955
2013	$36,384	$51,420	$42,271	$56,674
2014	$35,559	$50,290	$41,163	$55,927
2015	$35,399	$50,936	$41,769	$61,239
2016	$35,596	$51,981	$42,931	$58,518
2017	$36,093	$52,196	$42,006	$54,223
2018	$36,017	$50,830	$43,181	$50,706
2019	$35,579	$fifty,462	$43,658	$55,889
2020	$35,950	$50,010	$45,710	$53,730

Pew Inquiry Center

Methodological annotation

In this fact canvas, circulation data through 2014 is from Editor & Publisher, which was published on the website of the News Media Alliance (NMA), known at the time as the Paper Association of America (NAA). Since and so, the NMA no longer supplies this data, so the Center adamant the year-over-year change in full circulation for those daily U.S. newspapers that report to the Alliance for Audited Media and meet certain criteria. This percent modify was and so applied to the total apportionment from the prior year – thus the use of the term "estimated total circulation." This technique is also used to create the revenue estimates, using the financial statements of publicly traded newspaper companies every bit the information source.

Find out more

This fact sail was compiled past Senior Researcher Michael Barthel and Research Banana Kirsten Worden.

Read the methodology.

Pew Inquiry Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. This is the latest report in Pew Research Centre's ongoing investigation of the state of news, information and journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from the John Due south. and James 50. Knight Foundation.

Detect more in-depth explorations of U.South. newspapers past following the links below:

• A third of large U.S. newspapers experienced layoffs in 2020, more than in 2019, May 21, 2021
• More than eight-in-ten Americans get news from digital devices, Jan. 12, 2021
• Coronavirus-Driven Downturn Hits Newspapers Difficult every bit Television receiver News Thrives, Oct. 29, 2020
• Nearly 2,800 newspaper companies received paycheck protection loans, and most were nether $150K, Oct. 29, 2020
• U.Southward. newspapers have shed one-half of their newsroom employees since 2008, April twenty, 2020
• Americans' main sources for political news vary by party and historic period, Apr one, 2020
• Black and white Democrats differ in their media diets, assessments of primaries, March eleven, 2020
• Fast facts well-nigh the paper industry'due south financial struggles as McClatchy files for bankruptcy, February. xiv, 2020
• U.S. Media Polarization and the 2020 Election: A Nation Divided, Jan. 24, 2020
• For Local News, Americans Comprehend Digital only Still Desire Strong Community Connectedness, March 26, 2019
• What are the local news dynamics in your urban center?, March 26, 2019

How Many People Read the New York Times?

Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/newspapers/