2012: Difficult Year at Best for Black Media

A new article by the Pew Research Center indicates that 2012 was not exactly the best of times for black media, but not all is doom and gloom.

Covering the realm of black media from newspapers to TV, magazines, and the internet, The State of News Media 2013 highlights some downward trends that are being felt in media beyond that just geared towards African Americans.

State of Newspapers and Circulation

Newspapers around the country have seemingly been threatened by lower circulation, decreasing advertisement revenue, and staff cutbacks for the better part of a decade now. The same holds true for many black newspapers as well. The SNM 2013 chart shows 4 out of 5 major black publications saw circulation declines during a six-month period in 2012.

It should come as no surprise that when your circulation begins to dip, so too does the money from advertisers. This in turn often leads to cutbacks/firings affecting the publication's ability to cover stories in a particular community. The fewer stories that are covered, may mean less people pick up your paper, hence continuing a vicious cycle.

I witnessed firsthand the effects that cutbacks can have on a newsroom. In 2004 and 2006 I had interned at my local newspaper in New Jersey and found out a few years later that they had moved out of the building where they were located because they could no longer afford the costs.