Media

America's 100 Largest Newspapers

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: January 24, 2017 1:05 pm

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 3:35 pm

One only has to look at the attrition of the print advertising revenue of America’s publicly traded newspaper companies to see the extent to which the newspaper industry has shrunk. Another, more specific measure, just as startling, is the paid print circulation of America’s 100 largest newspapers based on the same measure. This number has dropped by over a quarter at many papers in as little as three years.

The circulation drops are often due to strategic decisions by newspaper companies. Managements do not want to maintain the expense to print and ship papers well outside their home cities, which is an expensive distribution model. In other cases, media companies drop people who pay very little for the paper. Only subscribers who pay enough to be profitable customers remain. Papers in some cities, like Detroit, are no longer printed seven days a week. In each of these models, the plan is to cut the cost of their print circulation operations to either lower losses or make very modest profits.

The fallout of the slow destruction of the industry has been born to a substantial extent by four companies, which own the largest number of America’s top 100 papers based on combined paid print and paid digital circulation. These include Tronc Inc. (NASDAQ: TRNC), formerly known as Tribune Publishing, which owns papers in some of the largest cities in America. The Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune are the dailies in America’s second and third largest cities.

Tronc was recently a takeover target of Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI), the largest newspaper chain by the total paid circulation of its papers. Gannett does not own a large number of newspapers in America’s largest cities, but, by total newspaper count, it makes up for that. The biggest paper Gannett owns, the Record in New Jersey, it bought recently.

Another of the largest four largest publishers is debt-crippled McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI). With a debt load of nearly $1 billion, it can barely pay the service on the debt compared to the amount of its operating income. McClatchy’s largest papers are in Fort Worth and Miami.

Finally, privately held Digital First Media has a profit and loss statement that is hard to obtain because the company does not have to disclose it.

The only paper that currently has a paid circulation model that works extremely well is The New York Times, which had a recent surge in its total. At the end of the third quarter, New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) had 1,557,000 digital-only subscribers. According to the company, it added 132,000 paid subscribers between the election and the end of November. Presumably a large portion of these were digital.

Newspaper ownership among the largest properties falls primarily into four categories. The first is those owned by the large public corporations. The second are those controlled by private companies, the largest of which is the aforementioned Digital First Media, owned by private equity firm Alden Capital, Hearst. Advance Publications is another. It is controlled by the Newhouse family. The third model is papers owned by extremely rich individuals. The most well-known of these is the Washington Post, controlled by Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon.com. Another is the struggling New York Daily News, owned by real estate tycoon Mort Zuckerman. Hedge fund manager executive John Henry is the principal owner of the Boston Globe. The final model is papers owned by nonprofit enterprises. These include the Tampa Bay Times and Philadelphia Inquirer.

Below are the 100 largest newspapers in the United States based on combined print and digital paid subscriptions. Circulation data was provided by the Alliance for Audited Media and is for the third quarter of 2015. Circulation is the five-day average for publications that are published Monday through Friday. The list only compares newspapers that report this five-day average. To be included in total circulation figures, digital subscriptions must be restricted access and comply with AAM standards. Circulation figures also include affiliate publications as grouped by the AAM.