We’ve heard a lot about how newspaper circulations have been declining over the last 30 years, but seeing that decline graphically makes it all the more gripping. Below is a newly published graph showing the circulations of a range of US newspapers over the last 20-ish years. It makes for some grim viewing. The tracks are based on data supplied by the US Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The key question it raises is where are these former readers going for their news – if, indeed, they actually consume news at all? Is the newspaper looking increasingly like a relic of the Victorian age whose days are numbered? Or, as Robert Putman pointed out in his seminal study of US society Bowling Alone, were the very high newspaper circulation figures post-World War II an anomaly and the later downward trend a correction?

The graph was created by a US blog calleed The Awl. If you’d like to see it in its original home, click here.

The downward trend of US newspaper circulations

Written by Adrian Beeby