Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies)#Audience ("WP:AUD") is one of the primary criteria for determining whether a business, organization, commercial product, or similar subject qualifies for a separate, stand-alone article on the English Wikipedia.
This page explains the requirements in more detail and provides some history that may help clarify the principles motivating this requirement.
Text of the audience criteria
As of July 2023 [update], the relevant section of the guideline says:
The source's audience must also be considered. Significant coverage in media with an international, national, or at least regional (e.g., the biggest daily newspaper in any US state) is a strong indication of notability. Attention solely from local media (e.g., the weekly newspaper for a small town), or media of limited interest and circulation (e.g., a newsletter exclusively for people with a very unusual job), is not an indication of notability. At least one regional, statewide, provincial, national, or international source is necessary.
Long explanation of the audience criteria
The subject does not meet the audience criterion if the only sources that write about this organization, business, or product are:
- a small-town newspaper where the subject is located (does not apply to subjects that are not located in small towns or similar rural areas),
- media of limited interest (e.g., a niche source about exclusively blue-green widgets only for CEOs in the widget industry. Note that a reputable trade magazine that addresses widgets and the widget industry more generally – not just a particular model of widget, and not just a particular role in the industry – is not an example of "limited interest"), and/or
- media of limited circulation (e.g., a subscription-only periodical with very few subscribers; a periodical whose realistic target audience is very small).
The purpose of the restriction on small-town newspapers is to exclude sources that may be indiscriminate, such as a local newspaper that reports on nearly every business in town, simply because there are so few businesses that it is feasible for the newspaper to report on all of them. The purpose of the restriction on media of limited interest and limited circulation is to meet the ultimate purpose of notability, which is to include subjects that have received attention from the world at large. No matter how useful it might be in writing an article, a newsletter sent to a very small number of people does not represent "attention from the world at large".
If there is any one regional, statewide, provincial, national, or international source, or any one source with a general-interest or scholarly audience, then the audience criterion is automatically fulfilled. (Other criteria still apply.) Acceptable sources for this purpose always include, but are not limited to:
- the biggest newspaper in any country, as measured by circulation (no matter how small the country or the newspaper is),
- the biggest newspaper in any US state, Canadian province or territory, Australian state or territory, Indian state or union territory, or the equivalent subdivisions of any other country;
- every newspaper that has a national market (e.g., The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post),
- every newspaper that has a regional market (e.g., The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, Star Tribune, The Boston Globe),
- every newspaper that has an international market (e.g., International Herald Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, Financial Times, The Economist),
- all reputable academic journals (including journals with a narrow subject matter; e.g., California Management Review, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Journal of Air Transport Management), and
- all regional, statewide, provincial, national, or international magazines and other periodicals (e.g., Sports Illustrated, Good Housekeeping, Bloomberg Businessweek, Editor & Publisher, Aviation Week & Space Technology; however, exclude periodicals with limited interest or limited circulation).
For non-newspaper news media, the same criteria apply and can easily be adapted. For example, if the sources is a television news show instead of a traditional daily newspaper, then "the biggest newspaper, as measured by circulation" becomes "the biggest news broadcasting program, as measured by audience size".
Examples
Small-town business
The Mulberry Advance is the local weekly newspaper (number of readers: ~100) for the town of Mulberry (population: 400) in the county of Crawford County, Kansas (population: 39,000). If a business or organization is located in or near Mulberry, it will inevitably be described in The Mulberry Advance.
For this restaurant to be considered notable under AUD, a non-local source is needed. A nearby (but not too nearby) newspaper might be put forward as a non-local source. Editors may disagree over whether an article in The Morning Sun (a daily paper with ~9,000 readers) of Pittsburg (population: 20,000; 15 miles away in the same county, in the same media market) constitutes a non-local source. All editors should accept an article in The Joplin Globe (a daily with ~20,000 readers, 35 miles/50 km away, and, in practice, in a different media market) or an article in The Wichita Eagle (a daily with ~30,000 readers, 150 miles away, and the biggest daily newspaper in that state).
Results
- Articles solely in the local small-town newspaper = non-notable
- One article in the local small-town newspaper + one article in neighboring media market = notable
- One article in the local small-town newspaper + one article in biggest newspaper in the state = notable
Big-city business
The New York Times is a national daily newspaper (number of readers: ~10 million), located in New York City (population: 8.5 million people).
If a business or organization is located in or near New York City, it is extremely unlikely that The New York Times will consider this business worth mentioning. There are more than 25,000 restaurants (and many thousands of other businesses) in New York City proper, with new ones opening (and old ones closing) all the time. The paper would have to run profiles of 75 restaurants every single day of the year just to cover each restaurant once, and it would have to post a restaurant review once every ten minutes round the clock, 24x365, for the entire year, to cover every restaurant in the New York metropolitan area.
Editors can therefore safely assume that coverage of businesses and organizations by The New York Times is neither indiscriminate or inevitable, but a choice being made by the editors to feature a particular noteworthy business. Because of the relative size of the paper, editors can also safely assume that coverage by this newspaper is evidence of "attention from the world at large", and not just attention from a next-door neighbor.
Results
- Articles solely in a
national newspaper (that happens to be located in the same city as the business) = notable (as far as AUD is concerned)
What is a region?
A region is always:
- bigger than local, and
- smaller than national.
It does not matter whether the region is bigger or smaller than any available subdivisions (e.g., a region could be bigger than a US state, or it could be smaller than a US state).
Examples of US regions that are bigger than local but smaller than a US state include:
- Southern California
- Downstate New York
- South Florida
- Ark-La-Tex (a small portion of each of three states)
Examples of US regions that are bigger than local and bigger than a US state include:
Regions that are bigger than national (e.g., the Indian subcontinent, North Africa, Central America) should all be considered "international" for the purpose of this sentence.
Myths
AUD requires the non-local source to contain significant coverage ("significant coverage" means a source that meets the requirements of
WP:CORPDEPTH), and it implies that the sources should be
independent, but it does not require multiple non-local sources, and it does not require any of the sources to be secondary sources. (The requirement for multiple secondary sources is found in
WP:SIRS.)
History
AUD began with this 2008 edit, which was made after this discussion about tiny newspapers.
Purpose
The intent behind creating AUD was to require coverage outside immediate area, whenever the coverage from within the immediate area was likely to be both indiscriminate and also not evidence of attention from the world at large.
This creates a more level playing field for businesses and organizations. Without this, the primary determinant of whether a business or organization was notable would be its location. Every business in a small town, with a small-town newspaper that covered every business, would be considered notable, but very few businesses in the largest cities, with newspapers covering only businesses they deemed worthy of note, would be notable.
Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies)#Audience ("WP:AUD") is one of the primary criteria for determining whether a business, organization, commercial product, or similar subject qualifies for a separate, stand-alone article on the English Wikipedia.
This page explains the requirements in more detail and provides some history that may help clarify the principles motivating this requirement.
Text of the audience criteria
As of July 2023 [update], the relevant section of the guideline says:
The source's audience must also be considered. Significant coverage in media with an international, national, or at least regional (e.g., the biggest daily newspaper in any US state) is a strong indication of notability. Attention solely from local media (e.g., the weekly newspaper for a small town), or media of limited interest and circulation (e.g., a newsletter exclusively for people with a very unusual job), is not an indication of notability. At least one regional, statewide, provincial, national, or international source is necessary.
Long explanation of the audience criteria
The subject does not meet the audience criterion if the only sources that write about this organization, business, or product are:
- a small-town newspaper where the subject is located (does not apply to subjects that are not located in small towns or similar rural areas),
- media of limited interest (e.g., a niche source about exclusively blue-green widgets only for CEOs in the widget industry. Note that a reputable trade magazine that addresses widgets and the widget industry more generally – not just a particular model of widget, and not just a particular role in the industry – is not an example of "limited interest"), and/or
- media of limited circulation (e.g., a subscription-only periodical with very few subscribers; a periodical whose realistic target audience is very small).
The purpose of the restriction on small-town newspapers is to exclude sources that may be indiscriminate, such as a local newspaper that reports on nearly every business in town, simply because there are so few businesses that it is feasible for the newspaper to report on all of them. The purpose of the restriction on media of limited interest and limited circulation is to meet the ultimate purpose of notability, which is to include subjects that have received attention from the world at large. No matter how useful it might be in writing an article, a newsletter sent to a very small number of people does not represent "attention from the world at large".
If there is any one regional, statewide, provincial, national, or international source, or any one source with a general-interest or scholarly audience, then the audience criterion is automatically fulfilled. (Other criteria still apply.) Acceptable sources for this purpose always include, but are not limited to:
- the biggest newspaper in any country, as measured by circulation (no matter how small the country or the newspaper is),
- the biggest newspaper in any US state, Canadian province or territory, Australian state or territory, Indian state or union territory, or the equivalent subdivisions of any other country;
- every newspaper that has a national market (e.g., The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post),
- every newspaper that has a regional market (e.g., The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, Star Tribune, The Boston Globe),
- every newspaper that has an international market (e.g., International Herald Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, Financial Times, The Economist),
- all reputable academic journals (including journals with a narrow subject matter; e.g., California Management Review, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Journal of Air Transport Management), and
- all regional, statewide, provincial, national, or international magazines and other periodicals (e.g., Sports Illustrated, Good Housekeeping, Bloomberg Businessweek, Editor & Publisher, Aviation Week & Space Technology; however, exclude periodicals with limited interest or limited circulation).
For non-newspaper news media, the same criteria apply and can easily be adapted. For example, if the sources is a television news show instead of a traditional daily newspaper, then "the biggest newspaper, as measured by circulation" becomes "the biggest news broadcasting program, as measured by audience size".
Examples
Small-town business
The Mulberry Advance is the local weekly newspaper (number of readers: ~100) for the town of Mulberry (population: 400) in the county of Crawford County, Kansas (population: 39,000). If a business or organization is located in or near Mulberry, it will inevitably be described in The Mulberry Advance.
For this restaurant to be considered notable under AUD, a non-local source is needed. A nearby (but not too nearby) newspaper might be put forward as a non-local source. Editors may disagree over whether an article in The Morning Sun (a daily paper with ~9,000 readers) of Pittsburg (population: 20,000; 15 miles away in the same county, in the same media market) constitutes a non-local source. All editors should accept an article in The Joplin Globe (a daily with ~20,000 readers, 35 miles/50 km away, and, in practice, in a different media market) or an article in The Wichita Eagle (a daily with ~30,000 readers, 150 miles away, and the biggest daily newspaper in that state).
Results
- Articles solely in the local small-town newspaper = non-notable
- One article in the local small-town newspaper + one article in neighboring media market = notable
- One article in the local small-town newspaper + one article in biggest newspaper in the state = notable
Big-city business
The New York Times is a national daily newspaper (number of readers: ~10 million), located in New York City (population: 8.5 million people).
If a business or organization is located in or near New York City, it is extremely unlikely that The New York Times will consider this business worth mentioning. There are more than 25,000 restaurants (and many thousands of other businesses) in New York City proper, with new ones opening (and old ones closing) all the time. The paper would have to run profiles of 75 restaurants every single day of the year just to cover each restaurant once, and it would have to post a restaurant review once every ten minutes round the clock, 24x365, for the entire year, to cover every restaurant in the New York metropolitan area.
Editors can therefore safely assume that coverage of businesses and organizations by The New York Times is neither indiscriminate or inevitable, but a choice being made by the editors to feature a particular noteworthy business. Because of the relative size of the paper, editors can also safely assume that coverage by this newspaper is evidence of "attention from the world at large", and not just attention from a next-door neighbor.
Results
- Articles solely in a
national newspaper (that happens to be located in the same city as the business) = notable (as far as AUD is concerned)
What is a region?
A region is always:
- bigger than local, and
- smaller than national.
It does not matter whether the region is bigger or smaller than any available subdivisions (e.g., a region could be bigger than a US state, or it could be smaller than a US state).
Examples of US regions that are bigger than local but smaller than a US state include:
- Southern California
- Downstate New York
- South Florida
- Ark-La-Tex (a small portion of each of three states)
Examples of US regions that are bigger than local and bigger than a US state include:
Regions that are bigger than national (e.g., the Indian subcontinent, North Africa, Central America) should all be considered "international" for the purpose of this sentence.
Myths
AUD requires the non-local source to contain significant coverage ("significant coverage" means a source that meets the requirements of
WP:CORPDEPTH), and it implies that the sources should be
independent, but it does not require multiple non-local sources, and it does not require any of the sources to be secondary sources. (The requirement for multiple secondary sources is found in
WP:SIRS.)
History
AUD began with this 2008 edit, which was made after this discussion about tiny newspapers.
Purpose
The intent behind creating AUD was to require coverage outside immediate area, whenever the coverage from within the immediate area was likely to be both indiscriminate and also not evidence of attention from the world at large.
This creates a more level playing field for businesses and organizations. Without this, the primary determinant of whether a business or organization was notable would be its location. Every business in a small town, with a small-town newspaper that covered every business, would be considered notable, but very few businesses in the largest cities, with newspapers covering only businesses they deemed worthy of note, would be notable.