Who pays for the news? The answer has changed over time. The Boston News-Letter began on April 24, 1704. It was approved and paid for in part by the British government. Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette was one of the first colonial papers to make a profit. In 1846, five New York City newspapers paid together for a pony express route. They wanted news of the Mexican War to reach the north faster than the mail. The Associated Press was born.
By November 2026, a news group such as the Associated Press makes stories, photos and videos for others to use. In 2022, U.S. newspaper advertising revenue was an estimated $9.8 billion. Circulation revenue was $11.6 billion, so readers paid more than advertisers. Daily U.S. newspaper circulation, print and digital together, was an estimated 20.9 million in 2022. Money is getting harder to find. Newspapers continue to disappear at a rate of more than two per week in the United States, as of 2024. Since 2005, more than 3,200 print newspapers have vanished. That comes from the Medill State of Local News Project (2024 report). A little fewer than 5,600 U.S. newspapers remained in 2024, and 80 percent of them were weeklies.
A news desert is an area that lacks consistent local reporting that fills critical information needs. The 2024 Medill report found 206 U.S. counties with no local news source. It found 1,561 counties with only one. From 2022 to 2023, newsroom jobs fell by almost 2,000 positions in the U.S. Most of those jobs were reporters and editors. Not all news depends on sales. The Public Broadcasting Act, signed on November 7, 1967, created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Public Broadcasting Service was incorporated on November 3, 1969. NPR was incorporated on February 26, 1970. As of May 2024, public radio is a membership group of independently operated stations in all 50 states. Together they reach more than 99 percent of Americans.
Paying can also blur lines. Sponsored content, also called native advertising, is made to look like a publisher's own content but is paid for. The SPJ code says journalists should distinguish news from advertising. It says they should prominently label sponsored content. Editorial boards work separately from a publication's news staff, who are supposed to cover the news independently.
Editors also weigh what to cover. They generally consider conflict more newsworthy than peace. Unexpected events, such as natural disasters and accidents, are likely to have significant news value. Stories that are easy to simplify are likely to be featured more prominently than stories that are hard to understand. Elections and major sports events happen on a set schedule, so news outlets can plan to cover them.
You may have heard that the news is full of bad things because reporters only like bad news. In a study of more than 1,000 people in 17 countries, most paid more attention to negative news. But the bias was not shared by everyone. Researchers watched people's heart rates and skin conductance as they viewed news, to see how their bodies reacted.
Trust is what readers pay for. The AP says it must say so as soon as possible when it is wrong. It points out each correction to the editors who use its stories. As of November 2026, the AP does not alter quotations, even to correct grammatical errors. NPR's ethics handbook names its core principles as honesty, integrity, independence, accuracy, contextual truth, transparency, respect and fairness.
Hearing scary or sad news again and again, or seeing strong pictures of it, can upset children. Grown-ups can limit how much kids watch about upsetting events online and on TV. If news is scary or upsetting, it is okay to turn it off and talk with a grown-up, who can help.
Words to know
- circulation: copies sold
- revenue: money coming in
- sponsored: paid for
- editorial: about opinions
- bias: unfair leaning
