{"id":87544,"date":"2023-11-10T13:55:34","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T18:55:34","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:07:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T19:07:44","slug":"state-of-the-news-media-methodology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2023\/11\/10\/state-of-the-news-media-methodology\/","title":{"rendered":"State of the News Media methodology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Note: State of the News Media was a report that measured key audience and economic indicators for various sectors within the U.S. news industry from 2004-23. Read archived reports<\/a> from State of the News Media here. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The State of the News Media fact sheets use a range of different methodologies to study the health of the U.S. news industry, including custom analysis of news audience behavior, secondary analysis of industry data and direct reporting to solicit information unavailable elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State of the News Media industry data<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The State of the News Media fact sheets consist of data originally generated by other individuals or organizations that Pew Research Center then collected and aggregated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the data aggregated from other researchers, Pew Research Center\u2019s team took several steps. First, Center researchers tried to determine what data had been collected for the media sectors studied and by whom for the media sectors studied. In many cases, this included securing rights to data through licensing fees or other means, and often included paying for use of the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, researchers studied the data closely to determine where elements reinforced each other and where there were apparent contradictions or gaps. In doing so, Pew Research Center endeavored to determine the value and validity of each dataset. That, in many cases, involved going back to the sources that collected the data in the first place. Where there were conflicts, the Center included all relevant sources and tried to explain their differences, either in chart notes or in the text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All sources are cited in chart and graphic notes or within the text of the report. Some data providers may update data for past and future years on an annual basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysis of Comscore television audience data<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, Pew Research Center began using data from Comscore StationView Essentials\u00ae and TV Essentials\u00ae for our TV news audience analysis, and, as such, the current fact sheets include figures from 2016 onward. Local TV news audience data is from Comscore StationView Essentials\u00ae, while cable and network TV audience data is from Comscore TV Essentials\u00ae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier versions of the three TV fact sheets included data stretching back to 2007 and used data from Nielsen Media Research. That data is available in the 2017 archived fact sheets<\/a>. Because of differences between the two sets of data points, figures from prior years are not directly comparable with the Comscore data shown here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysis of <\/strong>Comscore digital audience data<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In order to provide as clear a sense as possible of the digital audience data of U.S. news organizations, researchers took several steps using digital audience measurement data from Comscore, a cross-platform measurement company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the initial selection process, each Comscore entry representing an outlet or website (\u201centity\u201d) was individually vetted by researchers and unusual shifts in data over time were checked with Comscore analysts. Using feedback from analysts, entities that registered increases or declines in unique visitors over the time period studied (October to December of each year) that were likely due to inorganic changes in measurement or site structure were considered to not have data that could be trended and were removed from the analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all outlets, entities that are representative of an entire web domain (\u201ctotal domain entities\u201d) were used whenever possible. When domain entities were incomplete \u2013 i.e., when they did not represent traffic to an entire web domain \u2013 custom entities that represent the total domain were used when available. Multiple entities of the same URL that were the result of a structure change in the Comscore database over time were considered comparable. Researchers consulted Comscore analysts throughout the entity selection process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selection<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Newspapers<\/em>: Researchers first assembled a list of the top 49 newspapers by average Sunday circulation for Q3 2015, Q3 2016, Q3 2017, Q3 2018, Q3 2019, and the six-month period ending Sept. 30 for 2020, 2021 and 2022, according to the Alliance for Audited Media data. The Wall Street Journal was then added to the list, as it is one of the largest papers in the U.S., but does not have a Sunday edition, to produce a list of the top 50 newspapers by circulation. Each was matched with its associated total-domain entities in Comscore. Researchers then analyzed the Comscore data for October, November and December in each year. The following 50 entities were used in 2022:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABQJOURNAL.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 AJC.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 AZCENTRAL.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 BALTIMORESUN.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 BOSTONGLOBE.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 BUFFALONEWS.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 CHRON.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 CLEVELAND.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 DALLASNEWS.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 DENVERPOST.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 ELNUEVODIA.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 FREEP.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 INQUIRER.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 JSONLINE.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 KANSASCITY.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 LANCASTERONLINE.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 LATIMES.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 MCALL.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 MERCURYNEWS.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 MIAMIHERALD.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 MYSANANTONIO.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 NEWSDAY.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 NEWSOBSERVER.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 NJ.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 NWAONLINE.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 NYDAILYNEWS.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 NYPOST.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 NYTIMES.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 OCREGISTER.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 OMAHA.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 OREGONLIVE.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 ORLANDOSENTINEL.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 PILOTONLINE.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 REVIEWJOURNAL.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 RICHMOND.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 SACBEE.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 SANDIEGOUNIONTRIBUNE.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 SEATTLETIMES.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 SFCHRONICLE.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 STARADVERTISER.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 STARTRIBUNE.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 SUN-SENTINEL.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 SUNTIMES.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 SYRACUSE.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 TAMPABAY.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 TIMESUNION.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 TWINCITIES.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 WASHINGTONPOST.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 WSJ.COM<\/p>\n\n\n

2021<\/div>