Clearly shows that the Internet alone didn't kill newspapers (though it did wound them); social media did.

From 1995 (when the Internet first starting hitting the mainstream) to 2005 (when Facebook was created) newspaper circulation only declined from 58 million to 53 million, a drop of about 9%.

From 2005-2018, when social media took over, circulation declined from 53.3 million to 28.5 million, a drop of approx. 47%.

The decline from 2014 (40.4 million) to 2018 (28.5 million) alone is steep and profound. Lots of papers are going out of business these days, so they're not even *there* to subscribe to.

Year Weekday Circulation
1980 62,202,000
1981 61,431,000
1982 62,487,000
1983 62,645,000
1984 63,340,000
1985 62,766,000
1986 62,502,000
1987 62,826,000
1988 62,695,000
1989 62,649,000
1990 62,328,000
1991 60,687,000
1992 60,164,000
1993 59,812,000
1994 59,305,000
1995 58,193,000
1996 56,983,000
1997 56,728,000
1998 56,182,000
1999 55,979,000
2000 55,773,000
2001 55,578,000
2002 55,186,000
2003 55,185,000
2004 54,626,000
2005 53,345,000
2006 52,329,000
2007 50,742,000
2008 48,597,000
2009 45,653,000
2010 --
2011 44,421,000
2012 43,433,000
2013 40,712,000
2014 40,420,000
2015 37,711,860
2016 34,657,199
2017 30,948,419
2018 28,554,137