News Audiences, Decline of

Christine L. Ogan

As readers of print news and viewers and listeners of broadcast news erode, traditional media have a more difficult time remaining financially viable. of even greater concern is the cuts being made to the news gathering staff as fewer reporters translate to lower-quality news products. This entry explores the reasons for declines in American news consumption over recent decades—and whether audiences for news in traditional print and broadcast formats have shifted to the web—also describes a few of the strategies news media executives have taken to try to stem the tide and assesses the prospects for a successful recovery. Lacking an audience to read and view their work, journalists have no reason to produce news content. For each mass medium, the news-consuming audience has declined since reaching a peak sometime in the twentieth century. According to the annual reports by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, the percentage of Americans ...

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