U.S. Leads the World in Newspaper Market Declines

The current line on the U.S. winning the World Cup is 100:1, but what our country lacks in soccer prospects we proudly make up for in our newspaper industry’s rate of failure, where we trounce the nearest competition, the United Kingdom, by nine percentage points.

In a recent report, the OECD estimates that the U.S. newspaper market shrank by 30% from 2007 to 2009, while the UK saw a 21% decline in the same period. That’s like winning the match, 3-2.

The Guardian also found this neat little stat: U.S. newspapers saw a 30% decline in circulation from 2007-2009, again beating the UK, where circulation dropped 25%.

More highlights:

• “In terms of declines precipitated by the economic crisis and related employment losses, the United States is at the centre of attention,” the report says.
• US newspaper publisher revenue from circulation and ads fell 15% in 2008 and 18% in 2009, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study.
• U.S. newspaper ad revenue fell 23% in the last two years.
• “The industry remains profitable, but operating margins are dropping fast.”
• “In the United States, the number of daily newspaper readers is in steady decline across all demographic groups.”

On the bright side:

• “In all OECD countries, Internet traffic to online news sites has grown rapidly.”
• The U.S. has the world’s largest newspaper publishing market.
• The U.S. employs the most journalists.
• U.S. national papers like The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal are outperforming metro dailies.

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