Saturday, May 7, 2011


Where do People turn for News?
May Update

I wrote a post in March comparing the audience sizes of various sources of news. Since then I have found data that is more representative (Evening News, Morning Shows, Sunday News Shows), more recent (Newspapers, Cable News, Talk Radio), and covers new categories (Opinion Magazines, News Magazines, Television News Magazines). Only at Truth Matters can someone compare the viewership of news across so many diverse mediums. Inclusion on this list is only meant to show the reach of a news source, not to comment on its credibility or value.




The following numbers represent the average circulation of weekly opinion news magazines for 2010.
My Source: Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2011 State of the News Media
Original Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations

1.  National Review                                                                             203,085
2. The Nation                                                                                      146,602
3. The Weekly Standard                                                                       99,033

          PBS

The following statistic represents the average daily viewership of the PBS Newshour for the month of March 2011. Obtained from PBS through the Huffington Post.  

PBS Newshour                                                                              1,100,000
     



The following numbers represent the average daily viewership of Comedy Central’s satirical news shows for the month of May 2011. These numbers come from the website TV by the Numbers which obtained them from a Comedy Central Press release.

The Daily Show                                                              2,300,000
The Colbert Report                                                         1,600,000





The following numbers represent the average weekday circulation of the largest US newspapers. The data was compiled by the Audit Bureau of Circulations which studied the period from October 2010-March 2011, accessed through the Huffington Post.


1. The Wall Street Journal                                                                2,117,796       
2. USA Today                                                                                     1,829,099     
3. The New York Times                                                                     916,911        
4. Los Angeles Times                                                                          605,243
5. San Jose Mercury News                                                               577,665
            (includes all of MediaNews’ Bay Area papers combined)       
6. The Washington Post                                                                    550,821       
7. New York Daily News                                                                530,924        
8. New York Post                                                                           522,874           
9. Chicago Tribune                                                                        437,205  
10. Chicago Sun Times                                                                  419,409         
18. St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times                                                     292,441          
19. The Oregonian of Portland                                                     260,248



Although never explicitly stated on my source, Huffington Post, the following numbers represent the daily average viewership of the top 30 cable news shows in the month of April. The original source was not stated, but it was likely Neilson ratings.

1. The O’Reilly Factor                                                                                       2,925,000
2. Hannity                                                                                                        2,059,000
3. Special Report with Bret Baier                                                                       1,970,000
4. Glenn Beck                                                                                                  1,867,000
5. Fox Report with Shepard Smith                                                                      1,724,000
6. On the Record with Greta van Susteren                                                           1,698,000
7. Your World with Neil Cavuto                                                                           1,344,000
8. The O’Reilly Factor (11 PM Repeat)                                                                1,237,000
9. America’s Newsroom                                                                                     1,212,000
10. America Live                                                                                                1,119,000
11. Studio B                                                                                                      1,089,000
12. The Rachel Maddow Show                                                                              1,039,000
13. Fox and Friends                                                                                             1,027,000
14. The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell                                                              958,000
15. Happening Now                                                                                                  942,000
16. The Ed Show                                                                                                      825,000
17. Anderson Cooper 360                                                                                          706,000
18. Hardball with Chris Matthews                                                                                664,000
19. Piers Morgan Tonight                                                                                            625,000
20. The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer                                                                    600,000
21. The Last Word (repeat)                                                                                       531,000
21. CNN Newsroom                                                                                             531,000
23. AC 360 (repeat)                                                                                             525,000
24. John King USA                                                                                              523,000
25. In the Arena                                                                                                  515,000
26. Nancy Grace                                                                                                464,000
27. Morning Joe                                                                                                 455,000
28. The Daily Rundown                                                                                       436,000
29. MSNBC Live                                                                                                393,000
30. Red Eye                                                                                                     387,000
                                                                                        

The following numbers represent the average circulation of weekly news magazines in the year 2010. My Source: Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2011 State of the News Media
Original Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations

1.  Time                                                                                                 3,313,715
2. Newsweek                                                                                        1,578,691
3. US News and World Report                                                              1,073,292
4. The New Yorker                                                                                1,029,742
5.  The Economist                                                                                  828,181
6. The Week                                                                                            517,187
7. The Atlantic                                                                                         476,517






The following numbers represent the average viewership for the Sunday News Shows for the first quarter (January-March) of 2011. My Source: TV Newser. The Original Source was not listed, but I assume it was Neilson ratings.

1.       Meet the Press                                 NBC                                                           3,520,000
2.       Face the Nation                                CBS                                                           3,000,000
3.       This Week                                       ABC                                                            2,600,000
4.       Fox News Sunday                           Fox News                                                     1,350,000


The following numbers represent the daily average viewership of the network morning shows in 2010.
My Source: Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2011 State of the News Media
Original Source: Neilson Media Research


1.       Today                                           NBC                                                         5,300,000
2.       Good Morning America                ABC                                                            4,300,000
3.       The Early Show                            CBS                                                           2,900,000


The following numbers represent the average daily evening news viewership for the three network news networks for 2010.
My Source: Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2011 State of the News Media
Original Source: Neilson Media Research


1.       NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams                                                           8,500,000
2.       ABC World News with Diane Sawyer                                                             7,430,000
3.       CBS Evening News with Katie Couric                                                             5,650,000


Several Network News shows were written to imitate the style of journalism found in Magazines. The following numbers represent the average nightly viewership for various television news magazines in 2010. My Source: Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2011 State of the News Media
Original Source: Nielsen Media Research

1. 60 minutes                                                                             11,700,000
2. Dateline Friday                                                                        6,000,000
3. 48 hours mystery                                                                     5,600,000
4. 20/20                                                                                       5,500,000
5. Dateline Sunday                                                                        4,500,000
6. Nightline                                                                                    3,700,000



The following numbers represent the weekly audience for NPR’s news shows. As these are weekly, as opposed to daily, audience sizes, they are not directly comparable to most other categories listed in this post. My Source: The New York Review of Books. The original source was not listed.


1.       Morning Edition                                                                                                  13,000,000
2.       All Things Considered                                                                                         13,000,000



The following numbers represent the cumulative weekly audience of various talk radio hosts. As these are weekly, as opposed to daily, viewership values, they are not directly comparable to most other categories listed in this post.
My Source: TALKERS magazine
Original Source: Arbitron, among others

1.   The Rush Limbaugh Show                                                                                   15,000,000
2.   The Sean Hannity Show                                                                                      14,000,000
3.   The Glenn Beck Program                                                                                      9,000,000
3.  The Savage Nation                                                                                               9,000,000
5.  The Mark Levin Show                                                                                           8,500,000
5.  Dave Ramsey                                                                                                      8,500,000
7.  Neal Boortz                                                                                                         6,000,000
7.  Laura Ingraham                                                                                                    6,000,000
17.  The Alan Colmes Radio Show                                                                             2,750,000
17.  The Ed Shultz Show                                                                                           2,750,000


Other Statistics

For comparison’s sake, relevant numbers about the United States are listed below.

Population of the United States:                                           307,006,550
2010 Voting Eligible Population:                                          218,054,301

2010 Voter Turnout:                                                       41.6%
Number of people who voted in the 2010 election:                 90,682,968

2008 Voter Turnout:                                                      62.2%
Number of people who voted in the 2008 election:              132,645,504        


Number of people who watched Obama's speech 
on Bin Laden's death                                                          56,500,000






Originally Posted May 7, 2011

No comments:

Post a Comment