Is the Main Stream Media Dying?

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By Michael Snyder


Ratings at CNN, MSNBC and Fox News have all been plummeting in recent years, and newspaper ad revenues are about a third of what they were back in the year 2000. So is the mainstream media dying? Despite what you may have heard, the mainstream media is certainly not completely dead just yet. The average American watches approximately 153 hours of television a month, and as I pointed out in a previous article, about 90 percent of the "information" that is endlessly pumped into our heads through our televisions is controlled by just six gigantic media corporations. However, there are a whole host of signs that things are changing - especially when it comes to news. More Americans than ever are losing faith in the establishment-controlled media and are seeking out alternative sources of information. Is this a trend that the big media companies are going to be able to reverse at some point?


For years, the "news business" has been dominated by CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. But now all three channels are rapidly losing viewers. According to a recently released Pew Research study, the number of prime time viewers for all three networks combined fell by 11 percent last year...

POLL: Is the internet destroying the power of the Mainstream Media?

In 2013, the cable news audience, by nearly all measures, declined. The combined median prime-time viewership of the three major news channels—CNN, Fox News and MSNBC—dropped 11% to about 3 million, the smallest it has been since 2007. The Nielsen Media Research data show that the biggest decline came at MSNBC, which lost nearly a quarter (24%) of its prime-time audience. CNN, under new management, ended its fourth year in third place, with a 13% decline in prime time. Fox, while down 6%, still drew more viewers (1.75 million) than its two competitors combined (619,500 at MSNBC and 543,000 at CNN).


And the decline is far more dramatic when you look at just the key 25 to 54-year-old demographic.
From November 2012 to November 2013, CNN's ratings for that demographic dropped by a staggering 59 percent, and MSNBC's ratings for that demographic dropped by a staggering 52 percent.
Is this a sign that Americans are finally getting fed up with the endless propaganda being spewed by those establishment mouthpieces?


A recent survey conducted by a liberal polling firm would indeed seem to indicate that this is the case. That survey found that only 6 percent of Americans consider MSNBC to be their most trusted source for news...
NBC News and sister cable network MSNBC rank at the bottom of media outlets Americans trust most for news, with Fox News leading the way, according to a new poll from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling.


In its fifth trust poll, 35 percent said they trusted Fox news more than any other outlet, followed by PBS at 14 percent, ABC at 11 percent, CNN at 10 percent, CBS at 9 percent, 6 percent for MSNBC and Comedy Central, and just 3 percent for NBC

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And of course it is not just the big mainstream news networks that are in decline

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A recently released Pew Research study discovered that the decline of America's newspapers continued in 2013 as well...


The Newspaper Association of America has stopped compiling quarterly reports on advertising revenue. According to its annual numbers, which were released in April 2014, overall revenue for newspapers in 2013 was $37.6 billion, a decrease of 2.6% from 2012. Within that total, combined print and digital ad revenue decreased by 7%—to $20.7 billion.


Seven percent may not sound like much, but you have to realize that these declines have been happening year after year. When you look back over a longer time frame, it really puts the massive decline that we have witnessed in advertising revenues in perspective...


It took a half century for annual newspaper print ad revenue to gradually increase from $20 billion in 1950 (adjusted for inflation in 2013 dollars) to $65.8 billion in 2000, and then it took only 12 years to go from $65.8 billion in ad revenues back to less than $20 billion in 2012, before falling further to $17.3 billion last year.
Even when revenues from digital advertising and other categories described by the NAA as “niche publications, direct marketing and non-daily publication advertising” are added to print ad revenue (see red line in chart), the combined total revenues for print, digital and other advertising last year was still only $23.56 billion in 2013 dollars, which was the lowest amount of annual ad revenue since 1954, when $23.3 billion was spent on print advertising alone.


Yes, you read those numbers correctly. As you can see from this chart, newspaper ad revenues are now about a third of what they were back in the year 2000. That is not just a "shift" - that is a massive tsunami.
Needless to say, the big newspapers are quite distressed by all of this.


For example, "the Grey Lady" herself is essentially in a state of panic at this point. Just recently, a 96 page internal New York Times report was obtained by BuzzFeed that basically skewers the company's current strategy when it comes to the Internet...


A 96-page internal New York Times report, sent to top executives last month by a committee led by the publisher’s son and obtained by BuzzFeed, paints a dark picture of a newsroom struggling more dramatically than is immediately visible to adjust to the digital world, a newsroom that is hampered primarily by its own storied culture. But they still don't understand the true cause of their decline.

It isn't the fact that they haven't adapted to the Internet very well that is the primary reason for their decline.
Rather, it is the fact that the American people are losing faith in the New York Times and other similar establishment mouthpieces.

read more at:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/is-the-mainstream-media-dying

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Comments

  • It's already dead.  Been dead for at least 6 - 7 years.

  • Let them die. Journalism has totally lost the credibility it once enjoyed BECAUSE they were bought up by these big conglomerations who have shown little regard for the truth. I don't even bother reading my home paper the Houston Chronicle because it has swung so far out in left field.All they print is regurgitated crap from Reuters,McClatchy,and Associated press which is now nothing but communist propaganda.I want the real skippy, I hit the net. Not real impressed with Fox either but they are somewhat better than the old alphabet news.

  • YES !  We are having great success in Destroying the Major/Marxist-Socialist/Media !  The proof is everywhere you look.  Especially in the past five year,  the TV 'News' has been devastated with half their viewership gone.  They are scrambling to stay afloat.  What is THE noteable exception ?  FOX News. Nearly EVERY Major Newspaper (San Fran, LA, Chicago, NYC, Miami, Atlanta, Washington Post has been sold for a fraction of their 'asking price' 5 years ago.  'Why ?'  Because WHO read Newspapers ?  Middle and 'Upper' Class Working people who resent Marxist-Socialist stealing their money.  WHO Advertise ?   Local Small People enraged by the same thing. I REPEAT:  'We must Destroy the Communist Propaganda Machine - The Media and in the Universities.'  Advertisers (both local TV and Newspaper) can easily be given alternatives to 'Supporting' the Liberal Media who are out to Destroy Capitalism.

    It is Clear that we are having some Successes. 

  • I am a Fox News viewer and have been for many years but do so knowing that they have ignored certain stories and that many of their democrat operatives are picked because of their argumentative nature - they make for good animated TV debates. That is not really "fair and balanced."  The problem for non-political persons is that they perceive the main chanels to be left leaning and Fox to be right leaning and they would like to have the unvarnished news. 

    With all of their failings Fox and the Blaze do a better job than any mainstream outlet. I doubt that a real hard news chanel with investigative reporters could maintain an FCC license these days.

  •  It excites me that outlets like the New York Times is suffering as they should be for deceiving their readers for so many decades. As for the main TV media the owners and executives and many writer all belong in concentration camps-chain gangs in the deep south for a minimum 25 years preforming hard labor.

  • There are a few Michael here including the author.  Antonio, you are so right.  There is ethnic media out there, culture, religion, language, that goes for the most part unchecked.  They tend to lean to the left.  Than there are the Government (public) schools.  I wonder if the idea of the mainstream media dying is just a distraction.  We should always think of it as a formative foe and attack it as such.  If not, someday we will wonder what happened that the Left has taken over the Internet.  How did it happen the Left owns the colleges? 

  • Michel you never mention on your editorial the Univision network. I hate to tell you, but these people, provide news for the Hispanic population, and they are ultra liberals. All of their news, are tainted for the left. They focus mostly on illegal news. Is like they are here for good. No matter what these outlaws do wrong, they are applauded by Univision.

    One thing that Americans have not grasp, it is that there are other voices. I wish you could understand it, but unfortunately they are only mainstream for the Hispanic population. I'm Hispanic, but I do not agree one iota with them, However, they keep pouring the poison in the population. I wish that a Conservative Spanish news would open up, so that the message from both side is brought up and not just one side of the coin. .

  • None of the mentioned r 2 b trusted or watched.  WE need to listen to our own network and tht. does not include BECK.  Tune into conservative talk radio and leave the rest, watch movies only and your local news.  Even Hannity is moving to Texas where I HOPE he will hve. the freedom to tell us what is really going on once again.  START your own newspaper, Tea Party's have their own newsletters and ESP. vote guides r top of the list with Christian Conservative Leading the pack.

  • Not only is it true, 'The Poor you will have always with you...', but so the ignorant.  Hence, the mainstream media.  The underlying question: 'Are there ignorant people because of the MSM or is there the MSM because of ignorant people?' 

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