Cable TV and Interest Maximation

newspapers record the largest circulation gains measured in the past three decades, when the circulations of the ten largest dailies of 1976 are compared with their figures for 1950 (see Table 4). By far the biggest success story has been that of the Wall Street Journal, up 1,255,000 for its combined national editions. The Los Angeles Times, topping a million in circulation for the first time in 1976, gained 615,000 since 1950 in a setting of population growth and contraction of competition. Two eastern leaders ranked next, the Washington Post, with 343,000 gain, and the New York Times with 298,000. By contrast the New York Daify News lost 337,000 circulation between 1950 and 1976, apparently more affected by television competition than the Times. Detroit papers gained, Chicago papers lost, and fewer people read Philad e I p h ia's Bullet in. At the Sunday level, the New York DuiIy News lost 1,364,000 and the Chicago Tribune lost 375,000, while the Los Angeles Times gained 500,000 and the New York Times gained 295,000. apparently being less vulnerable to television's inroads in entertainment appeal of the print media. Newspapers held even in their percentage take of total expenditures on advertising between 1970 and 1975, receiving 29.7% at the start of the decade and 29.9% in 1975. The dollar gross increased from 5,850 million to 8,440 million. However, the division of national advertising expenditures allotted only to the mass media in 1975 showed newspapers receiving a record low of 16.8% of the total (television had 55.3%). The percentage of total newspaper advertising revenue coming from local advertisers rose from 10% to 85% between 1950 and 1975, as national advertising declined. Since 1900 the general trend toward group ownership of newspapers had been speedy and consistent (Table 5). By 1977 a clear majority (60%) of dailies were owned by groups and they held a n even larger percentage (71%) of the total circulation. The five largest groups in 1977 circulations-Knight-Ridder, Newhouse, Chicago Tribune Co., Gannett, and the Times Mirror Co.-together controlled 25% of U.S. daily newspaper circulation. Individually even the largest group controlled only 6.1% of total circulation compared to 13.6% for the Hearst papers in 1935.