''
Building in
Times Square,
Midtown Manhattan After being widely successful in the 20th century, newspapers have declined in their influence and penetration into American households over the years. The U.S. does not have a national paper.
The New York Times,
The Wall Street Journal, and
USA Today are the most circulated newspapers in the United States and are sold in most U.S. cities. Although the primary audience for
The New York Times (NYT) had initially been the residents of
New York City and its surrounding
metropolitan region, the NYT, nicknamed "the Grey Lady" and which has won the most
Pulitzer Prizes of any publication, has gradually become the dominant "
newspaper of record" for the U.S. media. Apart from its daily nationwide distribution, the term means that back issues are archived on microfilm by every decent-sized public library in the nation, and the Times' articles are often cited by both historians and judges as evidence that a major historical event occurred on a certain date.
The Washington Post and
The Wall Street Journal are also newspapers of record, to a lesser extent. Although
USA Today has tried to establish itself as a national paper, it has been widely derided by the academic world as the "McPaper" and is not subscribed to or archived by most libraries. Apart from the aforementioned newspapers, all major metropolitan areas have their own local newspapers. Most metropolitan areas will generally support one or two major newspapers, with many smaller publications targeted towards particular audiences. Although the cost of publishing has increased over the years, the price of newspapers has generally remained low, forcing newspapers to rely more on advertising revenue and on articles provided by a major
news agency wire service, such as the
Associated Press,
Bloomberg, and
Reuters, for their national and world coverage. '' on Monday, July 21, 1969, stating The Eagle Has Landed'—Two Men Walk on the Moon". With very few exceptions, all the newspapers in the U.S. are privately owned, either by large chains such as
Gannett or
McClatchy, which own dozens or even hundreds of newspapers; by small chains that own a handful of papers; or in a situation that is increasingly rare, by individuals or families. Most general-purpose newspapers are either being printed one time a week, usually on Thursday or Friday, or are printed daily. Weekly newspapers tend to have much smaller circulation and are more prevalent in rural communities or small towns. Major cities often have "
alternative weeklies" to complement the mainstream daily papers, for example, New York City's
Village Voice or Los Angeles'
L.A. Weekly, to name two of the best-known. Major cities may also support a local business journal, trade papers relating to local industries, and papers for local ethnic and social groups. As competition from other media has evolved, the number of daily newspapers in the U.S. has declined over the past half-century, according to
Editor & Publisher, the trade journal of American newspapers. In particular, the number of evening newspapers has fallen by almost one-half since 1970, while the number of morning editions and Sunday editions has grown. For comparison, in 1950, there were 1,772 daily papers (and 1,450 – or about 70 percent – of them were evening papers) while in 2000, there were 1,480 daily papers (and 766—or about half—of them were evening papers.)
Daily newspaper circulation is also slowly declining in America, partly due to the near-demise of two-newspaper towns, as the weaker newspapers in most cities have folded: The primary source of newspaper income is
advertising – in the form of "
classifieds" or inserted advertising circulars – rather than
circulation income. However, since the late 1990s, this revenue source has been directly challenged by Web sites like
eBay (for sales of secondhand items),
Monster.com (jobs), and
Craigslist (everything). Additionally, as investigative journalism declined at major daily newspapers in the 2000s, many reporters formed their own non-profit investigative newsrooms. Examples include
ProPublica on the national level,
Texas Tribune at the state level and
Voice of OC at the local level. The largest newspapers (by circulation) in the United States are
USA Today,
The Wall Street Journal,
The New York Times, and the
Los Angeles Times. In August 2019, it was announced that
New Media Investment Group had agreed to buy
Gannett, and operations would continue under the Gannett rather than
GateHouse name, at the Gannett headquarters but under New Media's CEO. The acquisition of Gannett by New Media Investment Group was completed on November 19, 2019, making the combined company the largest newspaper publisher in the United States. Immediately after the merger was finalized, all GateHouse Media URLs began redirecting to Gannett.com.
La Opinión is the most read newspaper website in the United States, reaching more than 6 million readers each month. It is the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States and the second-most read newspaper in Los Angeles (after the
Los Angeles Times). ==Magazines==