Environmental Analysis

Everyday readers pick up a copy of The State newspaper and give no thought to the fact that The State is part of one of the most important industries in the nation. Providing news to the masses is not just a big civic responsibility, but it's also big business. And just like any other business, newspapers are subject to the highs and lows of the business world.

Let's take a closer look at The State, the newspaper industry and the macroeconomic variables that shape this valuable industry.

Industry

The State newspaper is part of the newspaper industry. The newspaper industry has a long and distinguished history in the United States, stretching back to the publication of the country's first newspaper (entitled Publick Occurrences) in Boston in 1690 (www.historicpages.com/nprhist.htm).

According to the Newspaper Association of American, the modern newspaper industry includes 1,452 newspapers with a total daily circulation of 53,345,043 (www.naa.org/thesource/14.asp#number). The State has a daily circulation of 116,294 on weekdays and Saturdays and 149,871 on Sundays, according to The McClatchy Co. corporate Web site (www.mcclatchy.com/146/story/367.html) .

Newspapers are still the primary source of information for many people in the United States. A 2005 report from the Newspaper Audience Database (a source of detailed newspaper audience demographic data, reporting newspaper readership and Web site usage for 100-plus newspapers representing most major markets) tells just how many people newspapers reach.

"The latest (Newspaper Audience Database) report shows that eight in 10 adults (116 million) are reading the newspaper over the course of the week and one in three Internet users (55 million) visit a newspaper Web site over the course of a month. Unique visitors to Web sites jumped 21 percent from January 2005 to December 2005, and page views increased by 43 percent over that time period. In addition, the analysis shows that newspaper Web sites increased the total number audience, particularly among younger readers. The Web sites attracted 14 percent more 25- to 34-year-olds and 9 percent more 18- to 24-years-old" (www.naa.org/thesource/4.asp).

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