2004 Annual Report - Ethnic Media Audience

Black Press

For well more than a century the black press has played an integral role in the political and cultural growth of the United States. It was among the first ethnic presses in America. From the abolitionist era through the civil rights movement and to today, it has called attention to issues the mainstream media has ignored. It survives today in part through the National Newspaper Publishers Association, or NNPA, a federation of more than 200 periodicals aimed at African Americans around the country.

While African Americans are very likely to read mainstream publications - they are the second-largest group of mainstream daily newspaper readers behind whites - they nonetheless have a vibrant "ethnic" press at their disposal. And many African Americans do read these papers, publications such as The Amsterdam News in New York, The Philadelphia New Observer, The Michigan Citizen in Detroit. The NNPA estimates its members have a total of 15 million readers with $572 billion in annual buying power.¹ And the black press is increasing its online presence as well. From 2001 to 2003, the number of black newspapers with an online presence grew from 40 to more than 90.²

Asian Press

For a variety of reasons the Asian press is difficult to measure as a group, and the word Asian is more complicated than Hispanic. Not only does Asian not speak of a single culture or nationality, it also does not define a particular language. Even within Asian nationalities, there are language differences that make it difficult to group media. China alone has seven distinctly different dialect groups.

That said, it is clear that some Asian language newspapers have large readerships. The World Journal, a Chinese-language daily based in New York, reports it has 250,000 in paid circulation. The Korea Times, in Los Angeles says it has more than 43,000.¹

But without one common language, a single owner is unlikely as is a concentrated advertising push. And without that infusion of advertising cash, it is difficult for these outlets to grow beyond their current state. We hope to look more in depth at this area in the future.

Other Ethnic Media

Data on the much of the rest of the nation's ethnic media are, by nature, scattered and usually not measured in comparable ways. Each group's studies are generally highly localized geographically or highly segmented by ethnicity. Not surprising, New York and California, which have large ethnic populations, have the most data.

These data indicate there has been noticeable growth in the media for many ethnicities, particularly in major metro areas. The figures below, gathered in New York City in 1976, 1990 and 2000, are sketchy. They are drawn from different surveys. And some of the figures, provided by the publishers themselves, are probably overstated. Still there are some notable shifts, particularly among Bangladeshi, Caribbean, Chinese, Indian, Korean and Russian newspapers. Even if the figures are overstated, the changes and growth speak to a vibrant immigrant press in New York and to a lesser extent the growth of the ethnic press in smaller cities.

NEW YORK ETHNIC PRESS CIRCULATION BY ETHNICITY

In addition, the Editor and Publisher 2003 Yearbook lists 143 weekly ethnic newspapers nationally covering a wide variety of nationalities. These papers are a mixed bag. Circulation is as low as a few hundred for some, such as the Nasinec, a Czech newspaper in Granger, Texas, with a paid circulation of 420, and Russian Life, a San Francisco weekly with a circulation of 750. For others it ranges up to near 100,000. Haiti Proges in Brooklyn boasts a paid circulation of more than 70,000. And African Times in Los Angeles has a paid circulation of more than 85,000.¹ In future years, this report plans more in-depth study of all these ethnic media.

Other Ethnic Media Ownership

Beyond the Spanish-language media, the rest of the ethnic media are at an earlier stage of development. In California alone there are more than 1,000 media outlets for the growing ethnic populations, according to Pacific News Service. Many, if not most, of them are small and independently owned. That trend may continue so long as the populations represented remain too small to represent large buying power. Big, diverse media companies are unlikely to make the investment in buying a cadre of outlets aimed at different populations in different languages. If there is a possibility of pulling together ethnic media outside of the Hispanic outlets, it will likely center on small companies specializing in specific ethnicities (a Korean media company, for example, or an Indian one). At this point, it seems that large national ethnic news companies are years away.