Given the rise and acceptance of online media, printed newspapers have become less important in day to day life. Prior information reported by Pew Research says that since 2004, weekday newspaper circulation in the United States has plummeted by 57%. Additionally, newsroom employees in the newspaper industry have dropped by 51% between 2008-2019.
On today’s edition of The Michael Smerconish Show, the death of newspapers was a focus of conversation. The longtime radio and television broadcaster, author, and newspaper columnist expressed sadness after learning a prominent newsstand in Philadelphia had decided to stop selling newspapers. The decision was made due to slumping sales and the news industry’s challenges brought on by the digital age.
“Apart from me feeling nostalgic for the ink rubbing off on my fingers as I’m on a train to Washington, what’s really going on here is that those papers are often the glue that hold together communities,” explained Smerconish. “If nobody is at the school board then you get some of the shenanigans that are happening at school boards across the country.”
Smerconish shared information reported by the Associated Press in 2022 which claimed that newspapers were dying at the rate of two per week. The print industry had six thousand three hundred seventy seven active newspapers in May of 2022, down from eight thousand eight hundred ninety one in 2005. That represents a drop of two thousand five hundred and fourteen over the period of seventeen years.
If those facts weren’t enough to depress you if you’re an advocate for newspapers remaining alive, here’s another. A total of three hundred sixty newspapers have been shut down since the pandemic took place in 2020.
