- Considering printed magazines, estimates suggest the number reading Scientific American each month (2011) is 490,000, while New Scientist is 140,000 (worldwide),and Discovery is 190,000 [http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=47723&c=1 ]. Others include National Geographic Magazine of 4,480,000 (worldwide), Popular Science (1,340,000) , Astronomy (107,000) , Sky&T (75,000) [http://abcas3.accessabc.com/ecirc/magform.asp ].
- In Germany, the edition of Scientific American is read by 110,000. In France, the science magazine La Recherche is read by 35 ,000, Pour la science by 29,000, Science & Vie by 287,000 and Junior by 169,000. In India, corresponding foreign national versions of these have folded.
- In China, there used to be a few popular science magazines which had a readership.
Knowledge is Power (570,000 in 1978), Scientific Pictures (886,000 in 1983) but these folded. Scientific American quit at the end of 2005, after selling only 20,000 (expected 50,000). Chinese National Geography was at a high of 382,000, but has now around 200,000 circulation. The comment is that science is “too serious for ordinary people to understand and read”, with a problem of finding talented science writers. According to China Reading Weekly, there is at least one science magazine in every province and the municipalities of Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. With an average circulation of 20,000 each, it is estimated that there are nearly 600,000 readers in China, who form a solid basis for further development.
[http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200307/29/eng20030729_121156.shtml, http://www.bjreview.cn/EN/06-10-e/china-4.htm]
- The total of the world’s population reading these science periodicals is thus VERY small!
- How many science blogs are there?
This is also very hard. Technorati.com found 17,424 but many (most?) are psuedoscience so the credible number is maybe 1000-2000.
‘It is relatively easy to count science blogs in “smaller” languages, e.g., German, Italian, French, Spanish or Portuguese, with several dozen each at most. It is much more difficult to count science blogs written in English, Russian, Chinese or Japanese – those most likely count in multiples of thousands. But it is impossible to make a good estimate as it depends on one’s definition’.
There are also science blog networks, which showcase a number of reputable bloggers together, and their number is growing. But only a few bloggers can join Scientific American, PLOS, Wired etc.. so this is distinctly not a democratic realm.
[see also http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/07/10/science-blogs-definition-and-a-history/]
- How many science programmes on TV?
Again this is very hard to estimate, and in particular to see if this is increasing or decreasing over time.
- How much does it cost to write a science article in a mainstream newspaper?
Based on discussions with a number of journalists and scientists:
Scientist Writing Time (3hrs, £45k/yr = £84)
Graphics Making (3hrs, £20-35k/yr = £39)
Journalist Research and Write (8hrs, £25k/yr = £128)
Editorial (4hrs, £55k/yr = £140)
Typesetting (3hrs, £22/hr = £66)
Assume 213 working days in a year (1600 hrs/year) and that total cost is roughly three times total pay cost in general (a good rule of thumb). This gives total cost of publishing a science article in a newspaper at around £1500.