New Pew Assessment of Media Landscape Reveals Familiar, but Disheartening Tale: Facebook & Google are Crippling Newsrooms
WASHINGTON, DC – The Pew Research Center just released its annual assessment, the State of the News Media, and the news is not good. Among other takeaways, Pew reports that:
- Digital ad revenue has grown exponentially, but a majority goes to Facebook (40%) and Google (12%) rather than to publishers.
- U.S. newspaper print circulation reached its lowest levels since 1940, while digital subscriptions rose, increasing the necessity for growth in digital advertising revenue.
- Advertising revenue for news publishers fell by more than $2 billion, a 13% decrease from 2017.
John Stanton, former DC bureau chief for BuzzFeed who was laid off in January, responded:
Pew says that revenue from ads placed on digital platforms now make up nearly half of all ad revenue in the U.S. ONE THIRD of newspaper ad revenue comes from digital advertising, but for some reason the total continues to fall.
We know the answer: Facebook and Google are strangling America’s newsrooms for the sake of profits in their pockets. They’re at fault for this immense issue ravaging America’s newsrooms and suffocating the critical access to information the free press provides.
Pew’s new report sheds light on a plethora of issues facing American newsrooms, but this is an epidemic. The affront to America’s free press is on, with Facebook and Google at the forefront.
Journalism in America is facing an existential threat from the monopolistic control of tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Apple. Big tech’s dominance over the digital advertising market and their unrivaled capacity to monetize its platforms are having drastic effects on journalism as a whole.