The FRED Blog has discussed how the increased popularity of video streaming over the internet gradually decreased employment in video tape and disc rental establishments. Today we explore a related topic: how consuming news over the internet has reduced employment in the print media industry.
The FRED graph above shows annual data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on the number of persons employed in three sectors of the information industry directly connected to print media. Each of the stacked colored area in the graph represents one print media sector: book publishers (in green), periodical publishers (in blue), and newspaper publishers (in red).
Starting around 2000, employment in those three sectors steadily decreased. At the time of this writing, employment figures are at a 35-year low. Why are the proverbial printing presses slowing down?
This is likely another example of consumer preferences swayed by the easy access to internet-based services. Using a different dataset from the BLS, Mason Walker from the Pew Research Center compares the shrinking print newspaper employment to the expanding employment in the digital publishing industry.
Although those figures don’t point to a large-scale switch of workers between media sectors, they reflect the substitutability of the means to consume information. More broadly, overall employment in the information industry recorded a slow rebound after 2012. Keep in mind that the headline figure also includes motion pictures, sound recording, broadcasting, communications, and web services. So, it’s fair to say that even though the overall consumer demand for print media has definitely decreased, the overall consumption of information and entertainment hasn’t.
How this graph was created: Search FRED for “Employment for Information: Periodical Publishers (NAICS 51112) in the United States.” Next, click the “Edit Graph” button and use the “Add Line” tab to search for and add “Employment for Information: Newspaper Publishers (NAICS 511110) in the United States” and “Employment for Information: Book Publishers (NAICS 511130) in the United States.” Last, use the “Format” tab to change the graph type to “Area” and the stacking to “Normal.”
Suggested by Diego Mendez-Carbajo.
