Competition Has Taken Its Toll on Newspaper Reading

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Byline: Mike Clark, Times-Union Reader Advocate

Newspapers have plenty of competition.

There is competition for news delivery from a wealth of cable, TV, weekly newspapers and Internet sources. The percentage of households buying daily newspapers has been dropping for decades, as reported by the Newspaper Association of America. In fact, total newspaper circulation in 2001 (55.6 million) was lower than it was in 1960 (58.9 million), despite population increases.

There is competition for advertising, which produces the bulk of newspaper revenue. In fact, broadcast and direct mail each produce about the same share of the advertising dollar as newspapers.