Audience

There is little difference in the income of the readers of the three main weekly news magazines. All three had annual incomes of just under $70,000 in 2005. Of all general news magazines, the Atlantic has the most affluent readership and Jet had the lowest.

When measured in median audience, the ratings for Fox News fell for the first time in 2006. But, so did CNN and MNSBC. Median audience captures the core audience most likely to be watching day in and day out.

Far more people watch the three network evening newscasts than prime time cable news shows— roughly ten times more. But as cable news is always on, polls show more people say they “regularly” get news from cable.

The big advantage that CNN once enjoyed over its rivals in how many cable systems carried it has rapidly vanished. By 2005, the three channels were getting close to a level competitive playing field.

While the total number of newspapers has declined most of that was due to the death of evening papers. Until recently, the number of Sunday editions was rising, and the number of morning papers continues to do so.

The big era of growth for cable news for all three of the main channels appeared to be over by 2005. For the year 2006, MSNBC surprised the industry by emerging as the only one of the three to seeing ratings growth in its median audience (however modest.)

Newspaper readership has begun declining across all races and ethnicities. By 2005, Caucasians were the only ethnic group in which the majority of adults read a newspaper regularly.

Since 1980, there have been three distinct winners in the network news audience race. In the 1980s, CBS was dominant. From 1989 to 1996, ABC dominated. Since then, with occasional exceptions, NBC has enjoyed a narrower advantage.

According to the Pew Internet Project, 15% of all Americans reported
getting news and information about the 2006 elections, more than twice
the number (7%) who did so in the previous midterm election of 2002.

Alternative weekly newspapers have become a growth industry. Unlike general interest daily papers, since 1989 the readership of these papers--with their long stories, personals, entertainment-and-culture coverage and listings--have grown steadily.