Who Owns the News

Who Owns the News Media: The 2012 Database

The Pew Research Center Project for Excellence in Journalism released their 2012 database on who owns the news media. The interactive charts give readers a good overview of who is doing what.

The first charts I clicked into dealt with circulation, viewership and listeners. The information gives size of audience by company. NPR comes in fourth among radio networks. The problem there is NPR does not own any radio stations.

Dig in a little deeper and you will find who the owners are.

 For Radio they are: 

• CC Media Holdings Clear Channel -  160,099,000  million listeners - CC Media Holdings Clear Channel owns 829 stations with 2011 revenue of $251 million. 
• CBS - 82,178,500 million listeners - CBS owns 125 stations with revenue reported to be  $135 million.
• Cumulus Media Inc - 46,266,900 million listeners - Cumulus Media Inc owns 514 stations with 2011 revenue of $96.5 million.

Other Statistics

• The top on-line news sites are The Washington Post, Topix and USA Today.
• The top networks based on viewership are Comcast, Walt Disney and CBS.
• The top news channels on cable are MSNBC, Fox News and CNN.

You can find out a lot more here: Who Owns the News Media.