MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news corporation owned by Comcast, Inc (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013). MSNBC is an acronym for Microsoft and the National Broadcast Company. In 2012, MSNBC spent $240 million on producing their news. Revenues were up 6% for MSNBC in 2012 earning $443 million (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013). MSNBC earns most of their revenues from advertising and licensing fees (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013). They earned $202 million from licensing fees and $236.3 million from advertising revenues (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013). Their total profits were up 4% earning $203 million in 2012 (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013). The average viewing audience size in the evening for MSNBC was 818,000 viewers (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013).
Fox News
Fox News is a cable news corporation owned by Fox Group (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013). In 2012, Fox spent $820 million on producing their news (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013). Revenues went up 11% in 2012 with a total of $1.8 billion (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013). Fox news earns majority of their revenues from advertising and licensing fees.(Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013). They earned $736.8 million in advertising revenues and $1 billion in licensing fees (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013). Their total profits were also up 11% earning $986 million dollars in 2012. (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013). Fox the average prime time viewing audience is 1.9 million viewers (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013).
ABC News
The Walt Disney Company owns ABC News. ABC stands for the American Broadcasting Company (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013). In 2012 revenues and incomes for ABC News stayed about the same. Only decreasing by a few dollars (Disney Company, 2012). Gaining majority of it’s money from investors (Disney Company, 2012). ABC’s World News with Dianne Sawyer saw a decrease in viewership in 2012. Decreasing by 4.2% to 7.5 million views on average. The ratings also dropped by 4% to a 5 (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013). ABC’s Good Morning America increased in viewership by 2.8% to 4.9 million viewers on average (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013). They stayed the same in ratings with a 3.6 (Holcomb and Mitchell, 2013).
Reuters News Wire
Reuters was founded in 1851 and was owned by the Reuters Company until 2008 when it was purchased by Thomson. Its headquarters are located in London, England, as well as New York City, U.S. As of April 2012, Reuters received 90 percent of its income from subscription based financial intelligence sources. Reuter’s media president Chris Ahearn began advocating citizen-based journalism and Reuters gave a $100,000 grant in 2006 to NewAssignment.net, a citizen-journalism project (Coddington 2013). Thomson Reuters was also named on of the most ethical companies in 2008 (Company History, n.d.).
AP News Wire
The Associated Press News Wire is a non-profit news wire that is a branch of the AP (apwireservices n.d.). The AP was founded in 1846 by various news organizations who wanted to collect and share news (Brown n.d.). The AP news is owned by 1,400 U.S. daily newspapers. The AP news is controlled by a board of directors who are chosen by AP members. The AP news was the first to report on the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Referred to as “the Marine Corps of journalism,” AP news is often the first to report and the last to leave (AP n.d.).
USA Today
USA Today is owned by the Gannett Company. According to their own website (Gannett, n.d), Gannett owns several other media outlets the most notable being careerbuilder.com and mmajunkie.com. They also own a government media corporation that produces the Army Times, Marine Corp Times and the Armed Forces Journal among many others. Since USA Today is privately owned, its revenue is not publicly touted. Readers, online subscribers and advertising are the most likely generators of revenue for USA Today. USA Today has a circulation of 1,713,833 as of September 2012 (Research and Data, n.d.), second only to the Wall Street Journal. USA Today was also the first paper to print in full color. According to their website, they began doing this in 1984 (USA Today, n.d). The colorful presentation coupled with the fact that it is a young paper (est. in 1980) is one of the reasons for its popularity. USA Today is known for reporting on more peripheral material, such as sports and celebrities, along with the major new stories. It is a less serious paper when compared to the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times. However, it appears that USA Today wants to be perceived as a informative and authoritative voice in print. USA Today Founder Al Neuharth said, “USA TODAY hopes to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation” (USA Today, n.d.).
New York Times
The New York Times is owned by the New York Times Company. According to Marketwatch.com (New York Times Co., n.d.), the revenue of the New York Times has been declining steadily for the past five years. In 2008 their revenue was almost three billion dollars. In 2012, however, their revenue dipped to just under 2 billion. This information would suggest that they are stuck in a monetary ebb. The Times gets the majority of its income from online and print subscribers along with advertisers, even though it appears that advertising is becoming less of a contributing factor. Online readership is up along with the price of a tangible paper. Ken Doctor said, “There’s a large group of people that values what the Times does as a news organization, and that their willingness to pay is greater than we thought it was” (Coscarelli, 2012). The total circulation of the New York Times is 1,613,865 as of September of 2012 (Research and Data, n.d.). The New York Times began to show its superiority in 1852 when it beat out The Herald with an eye witness report of a tragic steamer accident. It also won its first Pulitzer Prize in 1918 for its coverage of the first world war. The Times has won several Pulitzer Prizes ranging from excellence in science news to war reporting (Menu, n.d.). The Times frames itself as a independent, trustworthy and historic news outlet. However, a trip the right message board will show that some argue with those ideas. Some people perceive the Times negatively as a leftist or liberal paper.
Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is owned by Dow Jones. Dow Jones owns several other companies involved in the business world including Market-Watch, All Things D and Barron’s (Print & Digital Media – Dow Jones, n.d.). Since the WSJ is not a publicly traded company, information on their revenue is unavailable. There is information on the revenue of Dow Jones Industrial Average but those stats don’t reflect those of the WSJ directly. There was difficulty finding official statements on how the WSJ gets is revenue. However, if you visit their website you will see they are charging for online subscriptions along with the tangible paper they still produce. Advertising also plays a role in the revenue of the WSJ. The WSJ has a circulation of 2,293,798 papers as of September 2012 (Research and Data, n.d.). According to their website (Dow Jones History, n.d.), “Making innovative use of microwave technology, Dow Jones is able to reproduce newspaper pages by facsimile over long distances – a vital step toward a truly national newspaper.” A few years after the use of microwave technology they began placing journalists in major European, Asian, and Australian financial centers. They are most well known for scooping major news and showing how it relates to the business world.
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post was originally launched in 2005 by Arianna Huffington (Pulley, 2010). In February of 2011, AOL acquired the Huffington Post for $315 million (The Huffington Post (Web site), n.d.). It posted it’s first annual profit in 2010, at 30 million dollars, and has had several investments through the years (Pulley, 2010). In 2006, one year after its opening, SoftBank Capital invested $5 million into the bank and two years later, in 2008, the Huffington Post completed $15 million in fundraising (McAthy, 2013). The Huffington Post website gets roughly 7.7 unique visitors a day (Related Queries, n.d.), according to quantcast (Huffingtonpost.com Traffic, n.d.), which is less than the New York Time’s 17.8 million visitors (McAthy, 2013). The Huffington Post has received awards for its coverage of wounded veterans, in “Beyond the Battlefield”. Arianna Huffington has claimed that it has no specific political view, but it is widely seen as a liberal news source (The Huffington Post (Web site), n.d.).
Salon
Salon is a news website that was launched 1995 by David Talbot (Interview with Salon.com’s David Talbot, 2001). It is owned by the Salon Media Group, making it independently owned. According to their reports, despite their best efforts, Salon has been unprofitable for the entire run of the company, and relies on cash injections and donations to stay afloat (Salon.com Traffic and Demographic Statistics, n.d.). Much of their inadequate revenue comes through their subscription service, called Salon Premium. The number of subscriptions has dropped however, falling from 100,000 at its peak to roughly 10,000 in early 2011. The rest of the web based income comes from in page ads. Salon.com averages about 390,000 unique visitors a day, and unlike the other websites up to half of these are mobile users (Salon.com Traffic and Demographic Statistics, n.d.). It hasn’t done any stories that it is particularly well known for. The editor-in-chief has said that Salon is “more tabloid-like”, but only if that means that “you’re trying to reach a more popular audience”. Beyond that, it is more commonly viewed as a tabloid site.
The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast was launched in 2008 as an independent company, but merged in 2010 with Newsweek to for The Newsweek Daily Beast Company. The Newsweek Daily Beast Company is owned by IAC, which owns several other websites (such as ask.com and CollegeHumor), and by the Estate of Sidney Harman (IAC, n.d.). Newsweek was then sold in 2013, but The Daily Beast remained part of IAC. There is no data on The Daily Beast, but AIC has $2.8 billion in revenue as of 2012. TheDailyBeast.com has about 250,000 unique visitors a day, putting it at the bottom of the three in terms of unique traffic (Thedailybeast.com Traffic and Demographic Statistics, n.d.). The Daily Beast has won a Webby Award for best news site in both 2012 and 2013. The Daily Beast claims to be a centrist news source,but often appears to be right leaning.
How to rate the news 