- Jun 2018
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5-10 percent of newspaper revenue
Holy cow, that's a lot!
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As recently as the late 1960s, the government was forgiving roughly three-fourths of print publications’ periodical mailing expenses, at a cost of about $400 million annually (or, adjusted for inflation, about $2 billion today). Much of that disappeared with the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 and in subsequent cutbacks. But the Post Office still discounts the postage cost of periodicals by about $270 million a year.
This sounds like the postal subsidies have been scaled back, but some percentage of this decline can be explained by a decline in print circulation as well.
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And the amount used to be much higher.
When? How much higher?
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jonudell.net jonudell.net
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dawn of the republic
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From the dawn of the republic, American newspapers were supported by government subsidies
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The advertising-supported model that has recently collapsed was a historical anomaly.
This research suggests the advertising-dominated model has been in place for over 20 years now. Does this contradict the assertion made in the claim? Is the research credible?
https://www.academia.edu/4894990/Online_Revenue_Business_Model_Has_Changed_Little_Since_1996
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the dawn of the republic
For the purposes of this, we are taking this to mean post-ratification of The Constitution, roughly 1790 forward.
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advertising-supported model
The Baltimore Clipper in 1844 charged $0.01 per copy of their daily paper. The paper consisted of roughly two-thirds advertisements.
According to https://www.davemanuel.com/inflation-calculator.php, $0.01 from 1844 is roughly equivalent to $0.32 today, but today's newspapers cost $1 or more.
This suggests that in the mid-1800s newspapers were more heavily supported by ad revenue than they are today.
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government subsidies
According to Wikipedia:
The U.S. Postal Service Act of 1792 provided substantial subsidies: Newspapers were delivered up to 100 miles for a penny and beyond for 1.5 cents, when first class postage ranged from six cents to a quarter.
Tags
Annotators
URL
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chroniclingamerica.loc.gov chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
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American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper., November 11, 1844, Image 4
Baltimore Clipper from 1844 - 2/3 of 4 page paper is advertisements.
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guides.library.upenn.edu guides.library.upenn.edu
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American Newspapers: 17th-19th Century Newspapers Online
source for historical newspaper images
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