- National ad spending, as a percentage of the US economy, in 2000: about 1.5%
- National ad spending, as a percentage of the US economy, in 2016: about 1%
- Change in newspaper audience from 2014 to 2015: -7%
- Change in cable TV audience for prime-time news: +8%
- Change in network TV audience for evening news: +1%
- Change in local TV audience for morning and early evening news: -2%
- Change in local TV audience for late night news: -5%
- Percentage of Americans who have ever listened to an audiobook: 43%
- Average number of audiobooks consumed per American in 2015: 5.8
- Average number consumed so far this year: 6.7
- Average increase in longevity for book readers: 2 years
Sources: How Mobile Today Is Like TV Six Decades Ago; Newspaper Declines Accelerate, Latest Pew Research Finds; The Audiobook Consumer 2016; Read Books, Live Longer?
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
