The media of the United States tends to be primarily controlled by for-profit corporations based on advertising, subscription, and other sales-related revenues.

Thanks partly to the strong backing of the U.S. foreign policy, many are the leading global players, generating profits as well as criticisms in many parts of the world. Further deregulation and convergence are under way, leading to mega-mergers, further concentration of media ownership, and emergence of media conglomerates.

While these trends may lead one to imagine a stifling world of monopolies, new media, notably the Internet, are creating new opportunities, and old giants are not necessarily the ones who seize them.

Contents

1 Television 2 Radio 3 Motion Pictures 4 Newspapers 5 Magazines

Television

Main article: Television in the United States

Radio

Main article: Radio in the United States

American radio broadcasts in two bands: FM and AM. Some stations are only talk radio--featuring interviews and discussions--while music radio stations broadcast one particular type of music: Top 40, hip-hop, country, etc. Radio broadcast companies have become increasingly consolidated in recent years. National Public Radio is the nation's primary public radio network, but most radio stations are commercial and profit-oriented.

Motion Pictures

Main article: Cinema of the United States

Newspapers

Main article: Newpapers in the United States

Newspapers have declined in their influence and penetration into American households over the years. The U.S. does not have a national paper per se, although the influential dailies New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are sold in most U.S. cities. Instead, metropolitan areas have their own local newspapers. Typically, a metropolitan area will support at most 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 wire service, such as the Associated Press or Reuters, for their national and world coverage.

With a very few exceptions, all the newspapers in the U.S. are privately owned, either by large chains such as Gannett or Knight Ridder Inc. , 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 paper(s), for example, New York City's Village Voice or Los Angeles' L.A. Weekly , to name two of the most venerable. Major cities may also support a local business journal, trade papers relating to local industries and papers for local ethnic and social groups.

Probably due to competition from other media, 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:

1960	58.8 million
1970	62.1 million
1980	62.2 million
1990	62.3 million
2000	55.8 million

The primary source of newspaper income is advertising--in the form of "classifieds" or inserted advertising circulars--rather than circulation income.

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.

See also: List of newspapers in the United States

Magazines

See also: List of United States magazines