Pew Research Center Releases 'State Of The News Media 2016'

Annual Survey

PEW RESEARCH CENTER has released its annual State of the News Media report for 2016, and, once again, the report aggregates existing research on various media to note the growth of digital and continued woes or slow growth for traditional media.  The report notes the growth of podcasts with EDISON RESEARCH data but adds that "podcasts overall (beyond just news) still reach a minority of Americans (36%) and bring in a fraction of revenue compared with other news genres."  

Radio, grouped in an "Audio" fact sheet and using EDISON, BIA/KELSEY, NIELSEN, and RAB data, is noted to be growing on the digital side but not enough to make up for shrinkage in traditional spot advertising. Online radio listenership, the report points out, has more than doubled since 2010, with 57% of Americans 12 and older saying they have listened to online radio in the past month; listening via cellphones in cars has grown slightly in the past year from 35% to 37%, still well ahead of 2010's 6%. Terrestrial radio listening still holds a large audience, with NIELSEN's RADAR survey finding that 91% of those surveyed listened to AM/FM radio in the week before their ratings participation.

PEW's own numbers say that, asked how they got news about the election, 44% of adults said they had heard reporting on the election on the radio in the past week, ahead of national (23%) and local (29%) newspapers but behind local TV news (57%) and cable news (54%). Revenues, according to RAB figures, were roughly flat, with spot advertising down 3% and digital (5%) and non-broadcast (11%) advertising up.

And on public radio, the report, using NIELSEN ratings, found "little change" in audience size, growth in the number of listening sessions on mobile phones but slippage on iPads, and growth in podcast unique users.  Underwriting and individual giving both continue to grow as well in numbers from PUBLIC MEDIA FUTURES FORUM.

See the whole report, including looks at newspapers, cable, local, and network TV news, digital media, and more, here.

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