MORE FACT SHEETS: STATE OF THE NEWS MEDIA

News media made by and for the two largest racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States – black Americans and Hispanic Americans – have been a consistent part of the American news landscape. News media aimed at both of these groups have recently had audience declines. Explore the trends in Hispanic- and black-oriented news outlets below.

Audience

As the two largest Spanish-language television networks in the U.S., Univision and Telemundo are key providers of news for Spanish speakers. Univision’s average audience – measured as the average number of TVs tuned to a program throughout a period of time – declined for all three national time slots studied: a 12% decline for the evening news time slot (4 p.m. to 7 p.m.), to an average audience of about 1 million; a 14% decline in late night news (11 p.m. to 2 a.m.); and an 11% decline for the morning news time slot (6 a.m. to 9 a.m.). Telemundo’s audience, on the other hand, increased by 7% in the evening news time slot, to an audience of about 700,ooo, and remained roughly steady at just under 400,000 for late night news.

Audience for Univision network Time slot 2016 2017 2018 Morning news 609,400 505,644 449,620 Evening news 1,205,741 1,138,172 997,117 Late night news 597,456 555,746 476,437 Pew Research Center

Previous versions of this fact sheet included data stretching back to 2007. This data is available in the 2017 archived fact sheet.

Audience for Telemundo network Time slot 2016 2017 2018 Evening news 698,064 656,599 703,056 Late night news 394,857 374,175 387,078 Pew Research Center

Both Univision and Telemundo have local affiliate stations that carry their own original news programming. In 2018, average viewership for Univision affiliates dropped in three key time slots. Univision affiliates’ late night news (11 p.m. to 2 a.m.) showed a drop of 17%, while evening news (4 p.m. to 7 p.m.) viewership for Univision affiliates saw a smaller drop of 5%. Morning news for Univision affiliates, which has far lower viewership overall, dropped by 11%. Average viewership for Telemundo affiliates during these time slots was more varied, with evening news dropping 6%, late night news remaining about steady, and morning news seeing a steep decline of 70% in average audience.

Audience for Univision local TV affiliates Time slot 2016 2017 2018 Morning news 23,020 25,336 22,661 Evening news 614,108 567,513 538,569 Late night news 326,837 210,560 175,475 Pew Research Center

Audience for Telemundo local TV affiliates Time slot 2016 2017 2018 Morning news 48,856 44,341 13,289 Evening news 295,826 277,492 260,691 Late night news 316,906 307,881 314,083 Pew Research Center

Average per-paper circulation for the top 20 Hispanic weekly and semiweekly newspapers in 2018 remained steady at just above 90,000. For the only two daily Hispanic newspapers for which there is 2018 data, circulation was mixed, decreasing for El Nuevo Herald in Miami and increasing for El Nuevo Heraldo in Brownsville, Texas.

Circulation for Hispanic newspapers

Weekly/semiweekly circulation

Daily circulation

Year Average circulation 2016 93,195 2017 92,338 2018 91,404 Pew Research Center

Year El Nuevo Heraldo

(Brownsville, Texas) El Nuevo Herald

(Miami) La Opinión

(Los Angeles) El Diario La Prensa

(New York) 2014 3,368 50,859 64,260 32,150 2015 4,351 44,944 49,953 29,339 2016 3,839 40,134 37,998 2017 3,156 32,902 25,269 2018 3,929 19,807 Pew Research Center

Black-oriented newspapers are a long-standing minority news sector in the U.S. The black press trade association (National Newspaper Publishers Association) currently lists around 170 members on its website, but few of these papers have regularly audited circulation figures, making it difficult to acquire audience figures for the sector as a whole. There are, however, 12 black-oriented newspapers – half of which are weekly or semiweekly – with recently audited circulation data. Among the newspapers with paid circulation, results were mixed, with three papers remaining steady, two seeing increases in circulation, and one seeing a loss. Among the remaining newspapers with audited circulation data, which are primarily free-distribution papers, three experienced decreases of 11% or more while the other three remained steady (to be considered a paid circulation paper, at least 25% of the paper’s circulation must be paid; for the free newspapers, less than 1% of each paper’s circulation is paid.)

(Pew Research Center is not aware of any directory of black-oriented news radio or television stations, though the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters represents black-owned radio and TV stations in the U.S.)

Circulation of black-oriented newspapers

Paid circulation

Free circulation

Year Michigan

Chronicle Chicago

Defender Philadelphia

Tribune New York

Amsterdam News New Pittsburgh

Courier Baltimore

Afro-American Washington

Afro-American Combined

Baltimore and

Washington

Afro-American Miami Times 2006 26,674 13,175 3,997 11,224 11,557 2007 25,214 9,996 13,380 4,001 8,775 9,749 2008 25,292 16,207 11,958 4,123 9,971 10,853 2009 24,944 11,158 12,543 17,477 4,721 7,244 6,592 2010 21,761 8,603 14,177 9,750 4,226 6,923 7,211 2011 21,034 8,396 14,955 12,607 3,997 7,394 11,858 2012 20,978 7,737 13,320 14,042 3,480 6,840 6,007 2013 21,702 6,741 13,745 13,588 3,063 5,595 7,172 2014 20,201 5,477 19,265 10,470 2,591 5,146 5,948 2015 20,082 10,888 15,138 8,298 2,280 10,315 17,999 2016 22,231 11,882 9,114 7,843 2,231 15,660 2017 22,724 11,124 10,789 6,777 2,607 10,934 2018 22,745 11,818 12,182 6,786 2,670 9,405 Pew Research Center

Year St. Louis

American Richmond

Free Press Houston

Defender The Atlanta

Voice The Dallas

Weekly Oakland Post Richmond Post 2010 33,455 4,825 2011 33,378 4,794 2012 64,137 33,006 5,570 2013 67,851 32,939 21,399 25,898 5,345 2014 67,956 33,021 23,979 27,225 5,003 2015 66,848 31,673 26,972 26,665 4,968 2016 67,139 31,328 31,022 24,708 4,900 2017 65,856 29,888 31,822 22,027 4,900 17,525 2,930 2018 56,802 29,063 30,444 17,440 15,634 2,909 Pew Research Center

Economics

Univision’s total revenue remained steady at slightly less than $3 billion in 2018. (Telemundo’s revenue is not available for analysis, as its parent company, Comcast, does not provide network-specific revenue.)

Revenue for Univision network Year Total revenue 2014 $2,911,400,000 2015 $2,858,400,000 2016 $3,042,000,000 2017 $2,973,300,000 2018 $2,713,800,000 Pew Research Center

While audience data is not available for Spanish-language news radio, revenue data is available and shows relative stability. Average station revenue for Spanish-language news stations that are listed in the BIA Advisory Services database have shown an overall decline of 12% since 2011, to about $1.2 million.

Revenue for Spanish news radio stations Year Station revenue 2011 $1,311,842 2012 $1,272,368 2013 $1,218,421 2014 $1,143,421 2015 $1,177,632 2016 $1,236,842 2017 $1,184,211 2018 $1,156,579 Pew Research Center

There is no revenue data available for black-oriented newspapers, which are mostly privately held, and no database that the Center is aware of that separates out black-oriented TV or radio news stations from all English-speaking news outlets.

Newsroom investment

The portion of local TV newsroom staff who are African American has remained at about 10% since 1995, and reached 12% in 2018 according to a survey of TV stations from RTDNA. By comparison, the percentage of television news directors who are African American is smaller, at 6%; in 1995, just 2% of local TV news directors were African American. Hispanics, who made up 4% of both the TV news workforce and TV news directors in 1995, in 2018 made up 11% of the TV news workforce and 8% of TV news directors.

Hispanic and African American staff in TV newsrooms

TV news workforce

TV news directors

Year African American Hispanic 1995 10.1% 4.2% 2000 11.0% 7.0% 2005 10.3% 8.7% 2010 11.5% 5.8% 2015 10.8% 8.2% 2016 11.1% 8.9% 2017 10.9% 10.5% 2018 11.7% 10.8% Pew Research Center

Year African American Hispanic 1995 1.6% 3.8% 2000 3.0% 9.0% 2005 3.9% 5.8% 2010 3.3% 6.6% 2015 4.3% 6.0% 2016 5.5% 8.8% 2017 5.3% 7.1% 2018 6.4% 8.4% Pew Research Center

Find out more

This fact sheet was compiled by Research Associate Elisa Shearer.

Read the methodology.

Find more in-depth explorations of Hispanic and black news media by following the link below: