According to Statista Market Insights, print newspaper and magazine readership is expected to decline sharply, from 2.1 billion in 2017 to 1.4 billion by 2025, and 1.1 billion by 2030. Meanwhile, digital readership is on the rise. The number of digital magazine and newspaper readers, which stood at 900 million in 2017, is projected to exceed 1.4 billion by 2025 and reach 1.7 billion by 2030.
This shift has been partly driven by the rise of smartphones which accelerated the trend towards online consumption. Statista analysts note that advertising budgets have also moved online, with U.S. magazine ad revenues falling from $10 billion in 2017 to $4.3 billion in 2025. Projections suggest this will drop further to $3.2 billion by 2030. In contrast, digital magazine ad revenue is expected to grow from $9.4 billion in 2017 to $13.2 billion by 2030.
The trend is evident in several other major markets too, including the UK, Germany, China and Japan, albeit with the U.S. seeing a sharper decline due to its initially higher ad revenue. India bucks this trend. Newspaper and magazine ad revenue there peaked at $2.6 billion in 2019 before falling to $1.6 billion during the pandemic. It has been recovering since, but with revenue forecast to reach $2.1 billion this year, it still hasn’t returned to its earlier levels.
The loss of advertising has led to many print publications closing in the U.S., disproportionately affecting rural and poor areas. It has also led to mass job losses, with newspapers having let go of at least 77 percent of their positions over the past two decades, according to 2024 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics published by The Washington Post.
