More readers are reading more information than ever before; and more wealthy advertisers are seeking places to advertise. But increasingly, people aren’t reading “legacy” newspapers, and advertisers (knowing fewer Americans are reading mainstream news) are spending their ad dollars elsewhere.
Join Lysander Spooner University at West Yellowstone, Montana on Aug. 9, 2019, where Dr. Roger Roots will show that “mainstream” news has a single definition: government supported and government supporting. The designation certainly has little to do with readership or circulation, according to Roots, as so-called alternative sources now gather far more traffic than most legacy news institutions.
According to a new report by the Pew Research Center, newspaper ad revenue plunged 13% between 2017 and 2018. Circulation is now down to levels last seen in the early 1940s (although U.S. reading-age population has essentially tripled). Mainstream news jobs have decreased by 1/4 in just 10 years even though major government-supporting universities are churning out more journalism degrees than ever.
According to the Pew study, digital ad spending goes overwhelmingly to just two websites, Google and Facebook. And as both Google and Facebook are fast becoming identified with the type of pro-government content found in ‘mainstream’ sources, viewers and readers are likely to look farther afield for reliable news and information.
