Coronavirus-Driven Downturn Hits Newspapers Hard, While TV News Thrives

According to a new Pew Research Center analysis of change in revenue between the second quarters of 2019 and 2020, not all sectors of the news media have been affected by the coronavirus downturn equally and newspaper companies have been hit especially hard.

According to PEW, among the six publicly traded newspaper companies studied – major chains that together own over 300 daily papers – advertising revenue fell by a median of 42% between the second quarters of 2019 and 2020. By contrast, total ad revenue across the three major cable news networks (CNN, Fox News and MSNBC) was steady overall, though there were sharp differences among the networks. While ad revenue for MSNBC and CNN declined by double digits, Fox News Channel’s revenue rose by 41%.

For the five local TV news companies studied (which together own or operate at least 600 individual stations), ad revenue was down in the second quarter of this year, but increases in retransmission fees more than made up for this. Meanwhile, ad revenue for nightly network TV news at the three major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) increased over the same period, as audiences have been turning to TV in record numbers for news about the outbreak.

You can read the full report here.