The newspaper industry continues to feel pressure from social media as readers move away from hard copy news to digital media. A new report from Statista shows that even the largest newspapers in the U.S., such as The New York Times, are struggling to compete with digital media. 

A 2021 report showed that print newspapers generated 12.72 billion U.S. dollars in revenue, compared to $6.18 billion dollars generated from online newspaper revenue. 

The overall trend shows a steep decline over the past 10 years, particularly among print newspapers. Revenues overall are decreasing as more people turn to online media for their news. 

According to Statista, in the last 10 years, revenue for the news outlet had not passed $2 billion, however, like other media companies, they made a shift to digital and grew their digital online subscription base to 5 million. 

Social media continues to play a major part in the shift where readers get their news. Data found that adults aged 18 to 34 saw a sharp decline in newspaper readership as their tastes shifted to podcasts. 

Consumers are also less likely to pay for news, forcing many papers to merge or close in an effort to maintain readership. More than 2,500 weekly publications closed down or merged with other papers between 2004 and 2022.

Meanwhile, the number of layoffs at newspapers continues to hold steady at 3 percent among digital native news outlets. Large newspapers saw a layoff rate of 11 percent, and online publishers saw layoffs reach 20 percent. 

Experts believe these numbers will increase as private equity firms and hedge funds take over independent and local newspapers.