2016 State of the News Media

The annual State of the News Media report is out, and the main take-away is social media and mobile.

The report, published by Pew Research Center, found that 62 percent of American adults get news on social media, with 66 percent of Facebook users getting their news there.

As for how they find it, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram users are more likely to get their news online mostly by chance, when they are online doing other things. 

For daily newspapers in the U.S., circulation fell 7 percent from 2014 to 2015, and newspaper ad revenue fell 8 percent over the same period. 

Most of that revenue is going digital, with the majority of the money going to Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft and Twitter.

When it comes to how people access news from traditional media, it's digital. A study by Pew of 110 newspapers, magazines, national TV organizations and digital-only publishers found that 99 had more unique visitors to their mobile sites than their desktop sites.

Other findings from the report:

There are now more Americans working for online-only outlets than newspapers.

Prime time viewership for cable news grew in 2015 for the first time in three years, while Network TV news (ABC, NBC, CBS), grew by one percent. The increase was attributed to the wild presidential campaign. 

Local television news lost viewers in every time slot—morning, supper and evening. The report also says that their audiences tend to be older.

Podcasting continues to grow, with 21 percent of Americans age 12 and older saying they listened to a podcast in the past month.

For radio, 54 percent of all listening occurs on FM.

For news magazines, circulation continues to shift from print to digital.

What does this mean for non-profits? It is confirmation that the conversation has moved online, and that mobile is becoming a main way to reach people.

It also means that non-profits will need to devote more time to figuring out the best ways to use digital channels, and keep up with trends and changes in Facebook's preferences (currently it's video).

At a time when groups are hard-pressed just to meet the budget, that is a tough challenge.

There is so much more in the full report. Click here to read it.

For a precis of the report, go to Nieman Lab.  

Image above from the Pew Research Center.