What began as a decline in newspapers has become a full-blown crisis: major dailies abandoning print, news deserts expanding, and a public trapped in a 24/7 cycle of stress, anxiety, and outrage.

By Scott W. Coleman

Empty newspaper boxes seen in San Francisco, California — Creative Commons - Dylan Tweney

The Collapse We’re Living Through

In August 2025, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution — founded in 1868 and one of the South’s major daily papers — announced it will end its print edition at the end of the year and move fully digital.

While the U.S. population has more than doubled since 1950, daily print newspaper circulation has collapsed—falling nearly 65% since 2000. The gap between growth and decline illustrates how the death of print has left America larger, but less informed.

Not long before, The Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey, ceased its print edition in February, along with several sister papers and weeklies across the state. In Alabama, long-established dailies like The Birmingham News and The Huntsville Times have already transitioned to digital-only, leaving no traditional daily print newspaper in major Alabama cities.

It’s not just closures. Many “daily” papers are no longer truly daily. Medill’s State of Local News 2024 finds that close to 30% of the 100 largest dailies now print fewer than seven days a week, and more than 180 formerly daily newspapers print fewer than three days a week. As of 2024, only about one-third of the 1,000+ dailies still publish seven days. Recent examples span the country: The Oregonian cut to four print days (Weds/Fri/Sat/Sun), Lee Enterprises has shifted many titles to three days, the Philadelphia Inquirer now prints just two days a week, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette moved from seven to five.

Together, reduced frequency and full digital transitions mean large cities can have a newspaper brand but no true daily print paper. Since 2005, the U.S. has lost more than one-third of its newspapers: from about 8,900 to around 6,000 today. Over 200 counties now have no local newspaper at all, and more than 50 million Americans live in news deserts where there is no local newspaper and in some cases no local news outlets at all.

The Death of Print isn’t just a historical trend. It’s happening now, and it’s reshaping how we receive information — and how we feel.

From Reading to Watching

The U.S. used to have a strong newspaper culture. Most cities — even small ones — supported multiple daily papers. Sunday editions often ran 60, 80, even 100 pages. Readers chose what mattered to them, skimming headlines, diving deep when something caught their interest, skipping when it didn’t.

Today, print has withered. According to the Pew Research Center, U.S. daily newspaper circulation has fallen from nearly 60 million in the early 1990s to under 20 million today. The number of daily titles has dropped from about 1,700 in 1980 to barely 1,200 now — and many of those have merged, gutted their staff, or gone online-only. Cities that once had competing papers now have just one, if any at all.

As print declined, television filled the gap. But TV isn’t just a different medium — it changes the nature of the message.

Where written prose conveys information, television conveys emotion. Voice carries urgency, conviction, and persuasion. Add the talk-show panel format, where multiple pundits yell over one another, and news becomes entertainment. The result is less “here’s what happened” and more “here’s what you should think — and how you should feel about it.”

In recent years, traditional cable news has been overtaken by online, short-format video content. No longer do most people sit through a 30-minute news broadcast. They consume information in 30- to 90-second clips on social media, often delivered by a charismatic and angry personality whose sole purpose is to stop the scroll and monetize attention.

The shift began with television but accelerated as platforms pushed outlets to “pivot to video” in the 2010s. The outcome was predictable: less context, fewer reporters, and more sensational packaging. Journalism shrank, but commentary grew.

Now, audiences increasingly turn to streaming-first news platforms and influencers: YouTube channels, alternative networks like One America News Network (OANN) or The Young Turks (TYT), and long-form podcasts hosted by personalities such as Alex Jones, Joe Rogan, and Steve Bannon. These formats often blur the line between reporting and opinion, and for millions they have completely replaced traditional news — narrowing, rather than expanding, the diversity of sources people follow.

When newspapers shrink or disappear, something critical is lost. A Sunday edition once offered dozens of sections and hundreds of articles, giving readers the agency to engage deeply or skim selectively. That world is fading, replaced by broadcasts and feeds designed to provoke.

*Americans spend far more time on work and commuting than their peers abroad. On average, U.S. workers log about* ***171 hours per month*** *between jobs and commutes—roughly an extra full workweek compared with Germany (****131 hours****) and well above Canada (****155 hours****). Longer hours and more frequent commutes leave less time for reading and reflection, reinforcing the demand for quick, emotional news formats over in-depth journalism.*

The Pace of Life and the Attention Problem

There’s another factor that can’t be ignored: time. Americans work longer hours and take less vacation than almost any of their peers in developed countries. OECD data shows the average American works about 1,780 hours per year, compared with roughly 1,340 in Germany. That’s the equivalent of more than ten extra 40-hour workweeks.

Add in commuting — about 28 minutes each way, according to U.S. Census data — and the average American spends nearly an hour a day just getting to and from work. Over a year, that’s more than 225 hours behind the wheel.

Workers in the U.S. have lost more free time each week over the last few decades. In 1970, the average worker spent about 167 hours per month on work and commuting combined. Today, that number is closer to 171 hours per month—roughly 4 extra hours per month, or the equivalent of an entire workweek every year consumed by longer commutes and multiple job obligations. Instead of gaining time as work hours declined slightly, Americans traded that margin away to the grind of commuting and second jobs.

The result is that Americans have less time to sit down and read. It’s not just that attention spans are shorter because of TikTok; attention spans are shorter because people simply don’t have time. Quick clips, hot takes, and 30-second videos fit into the cracks of an overstuffed schedule. Longform journalism doesn’t.

Commute Culture: Broadcasts vs. Reading

How people commute also shapes how they consume news.

In the U.S., most people drive alone. That environment naturally pushes commuters toward audio or video news: talk radio, satellite channels, podcasts, or social video streams. Much of that content is highly polarized. The left tunes in to progressive programs such as The Young Turks, while the right turns to voices like Charlie Kirk. Even supposedly “neutral” stations are often packaged in left-versus-right terms. A commute becomes partisan broadcast time.

In Germany, where I’ve spent an increasing amount of time in the last couple of years, the commute often involves public transit — walks or short car rides to a train station, followed by a train or tram.

That creates time and space to read: newspapers, magazines, or digital text. Even public monitors in train stations and subway cars display news as neutral, factual headlines rather than partisan argument. Commuting there is focused on information and reinforces reflection, rather than broadcast persuasion.

It’s not just the length of the commute, but the manner of the commute that shapes how people engage with news.

The Psychological Cost of Losing Print

I picked up eight fresh editions at a newsstand in a Berlin train station one morning in March, 2025. A couple weeklies, but a lot of dailies as well. Papers from around the country and across Europe — and even the New York Times — were available, as I’ve found to be common across European train stations.

The decline of print and the rise of emotional broadcast formats have measurable psychological effects. Research shows:

Just 15 minutes of watching television news increases anxiety, negative mood, and stress levels. Those effects persist even after the broadcast ends.
The American Psychological Association has documented how constant exposure to negative or sensational news creates fatigue, helplessness, and chronic stress.
Studies comparing listening vs. reading find that listeners form stronger emotional impressions but recall fewer details. Readers absorb more nuance and retain more factual accuracy. In other words, the more we watch and listen, the more we feel — but the less we actually know.
A large-scale analysis of online news found that negative headlines drive higher clicks than positive ones, giving outlets a built-in incentive to frame stories around fear, outrage, or conflict.

Taken together, these findings confirm what many of us sense: Americans are not just less informed; they are more inflamed. The very format of news delivery fuels polarization and corrodes mental health.

Europe as a Contrast

None of this is to say that Europe is a utopia of calm, measured journalism. Polarization exists there, too. But the delivery system matters.

In Germany, newspapers remain part of daily life. Public broadcasters are bound by mandates for factual, balanced reporting. Public screens provide headlines stripped of emotional spin. The news is still everywhere — but it informs rather than agitates.

The contrast underscores a simple truth: it isn’t news itself that’s driving our anxiety. It’s the way it’s delivered.

📚 Additional Reading

Hallin & Mancini (2004). Comparing Media Systems. Classic framework contrasting U.S. commercialized media with European public-service traditions.

RAND Corporation (2019). News in a Digital Age. Shows the U.S. shift toward opinion and emotion across media platforms.

Van Aelst et al. (2017). Comparing News Coverage. Finds U.S. election coverage more negative and horse-race driven than European counterparts.

Reuters Institute Digital News Report (2025). Cross-country data on news trust, video reliance, and polarization.

Shen et al. (2024). How Listening vs Reading Alters Consumers’ Interpretation. Experimental study: listening creates strong impressions but weaker recall than reading.

Johnston & Davey (1997). The Psychological Impact of Watching the News. Even brief exposure raises anxiety and negative mood.

American Psychological Association (2022). Strain of Media Overload. Documents stress and fatigue caused by constant negative news exposure.

What We’ve Lost — and What We Might Regain

The death of print isn’t just about nostalgia for ink-stained fingers. It’s about the loss of depth, diversity, and personal choice. When news consumption shifts from something you read at your own pace to something blasted at you through a screen, you lose agency.

A Sunday newspaper once gave you the ability to engage or disengage, to skim or to dive deep. Cable news and social feeds take that choice away. They repeat two or three stories endlessly, dressed in outrage.

The outcome is predictable: a population less informed, more polarized, and more anxious.

Can America reverse course? Supporting local journalism is one step. Choosing print or longform over broadcast is another. Even slowing down and setting limits on exposure can help.

Because if the death of print is breaking our brains, then the antidote may be as simple as reviving the habit of reading.

Sources & Data Notes

All statistics in this piece are drawn from publicly available, credible sources: Pew Research Center, Northwestern University’s State of Local News reports, the OECD, the U.S. Census Bureau, Eurostat, and the American Psychological Association. Additional academic studies cited include peer-reviewed research on the psychological effects of news consumption and comparative media analysis. Charts suggested in this piece are based on these sources and can be reproduced with proper attribution.

The Death of Print is Breaking Our Brains