The state of printed news - Part I
The final run of the Seeley Swan Pathfinder at River's Edge heads into the folder July 14, 2020. In Montana, there are more than a half dozen newspaper presses still in operation with facilities in Billings, Kalispell, Helena, Bozeman, Livingston, Anaconda and Havre. Some of these facilities print several other publications in addition to their own material. In recent years, the Missoulian, the Great Falls Tribune and River's Edge (Great Falls) presses have gone silent.
MONTANA - Newspapers around the country have seen sweeping changes in their structure within the last decade. Declining print numbers have forced publications to adapt to new markets and adopt new strategies.
According to a 2021 article titled, "22 US Newspaper Circulation Statistics You Should Be Aware Of" from Letter.ly, an online job board for journalists, weekday print circulation decreased from 63.3 million copies in 1984 to 28.5 million in 2018. The current U.S. newspaper print circulation is the lowest it has been since 1940 when official circulation data began being published.
According to The New York Times, in 2019 more than one in five papers in the U.S. shut down in the last 15 years.
Kevin Slimp, author for the Newspaper Academy, conducted a survey with approximately 600 publishers around the U.S. during the first half of 2020.
Almost two-thirds of respondents were weekly publications while another quarter came from papers that publish two or more times a week. The remaining responses came from monthly or exclusively digital publications.
Almost half of the respondents said that they are printing about as many copies as the year before while 42.25% are printing less. A little over five percent of respondents said they were printing more. Of those that saw a reduction, 38% said that it was less than a five percent decrease.
The Pew Research Center reported in June 2021 that the total estimated circulation of weekday U.S. daily newspapers declined from 44,421,000 in 2011 to an estimated 24,299,333 in 2020. This is a decrease of over 45%.
Consistent industry declines beg the question, "Is print in Montana dead?"
To compare the current state of Montana's newspapers to the national average, the Pathfinder requested annual Sworn Statement of Circulation reports from Montana counties from 2011 to 2020. Publications are required to submit annual circulation reports in order to be recognized as a paper of record within the county.
The study focused on paid publications. Publications that had an insufficient number of reports and free publications were excluded.
Of the 79 Montana Newspaper Association members, the Pathfinder received data for 25 publications, six daily and 19 weekly. Two publications, the Seeley Swan Pathfinder and Yellowstone County News, saw respective circulation growths of 28% and 50% in print circulation over the last 10 years while the remaining 23 declined.
In the past decade, these 25 publications collectively dropped an average of 28% in print circulation. Weekly publications saw an average decline of almost 25% while daily publications dropped by nearly 40% on average.
Based on this sample data, Montana daily publications have fared slightly better in the 2010s compared to the collective circulation of daily papers across the U.S. The Pathfinder was unable to find nationwide data showing the circulation rate for weeklies.
Over the next two weeks, the Pathfinder will look closer at daily and weekly publications. In the following articles, Montana publishers will talk about potential outside factors that could have affected print circulation and what methods they have taken to adapt to the shifting market.
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