The description of preferred sources at Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies)#Audience sometimes confuses editors. This page is meant to help.
The subject does not meet the audience criterion if all of the reliable sources that write about this organization, business, or product are:
- a small-town newspaper where the subject is located (NB: in practice, this provision can only apply to subjects that are 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).
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 the purpose of fulfilling the audience criterion always include, but are not limited to:
- the biggest newspaper by circulation in any country (no matter how small the country or the newspaper is),
- the biggest newspaper by circulation 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 an international media market (e.g., International Herald Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, Financial Times, The Economist),
- every newspaper that has a national media market (e.g., The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post),
- every newspaper that has a regional media market (e.g., The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, Star Tribune, The Boston Globe),
- 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).
Note that these sources fulfill the requirement even if they are writing about their "local" area (e.g., a national newspaper writing about something in its own country, a statewide newspaper writing about something in its state, a regional paper writing about something within its region).
The purpose of the restriction on small-town newspapers is to exclude sources that may be indiscriminate in the subjects they cover, such as a small-town 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. Wikipedia is not a collection of indiscriminate information, so we tend to shy away from writing about subjects for which we would have to totally rely on (relatively) indiscriminate sources, even if those sources are otherwise reliable and independent and provide significant coverage.
The purpose of the restrictions on media of limited interest and limited circulation is to meet the ultimate purpose of notability, which is to include in Wikipedia 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".
The description of preferred sources at Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies)#Audience sometimes confuses editors. This page is meant to help.
The subject does not meet the audience criterion if all of the reliable sources that write about this organization, business, or product are:
- a small-town newspaper where the subject is located (NB: in practice, this provision can only apply to subjects that are 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).
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 the purpose of fulfilling the audience criterion always include, but are not limited to:
- the biggest newspaper by circulation in any country (no matter how small the country or the newspaper is),
- the biggest newspaper by circulation 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 an international media market (e.g., International Herald Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, Financial Times, The Economist),
- every newspaper that has a national media market (e.g., The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post),
- every newspaper that has a regional media market (e.g., The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, Star Tribune, The Boston Globe),
- 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).
Note that these sources fulfill the requirement even if they are writing about their "local" area (e.g., a national newspaper writing about something in its own country, a statewide newspaper writing about something in its state, a regional paper writing about something within its region).
The purpose of the restriction on small-town newspapers is to exclude sources that may be indiscriminate in the subjects they cover, such as a small-town 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. Wikipedia is not a collection of indiscriminate information, so we tend to shy away from writing about subjects for which we would have to totally rely on (relatively) indiscriminate sources, even if those sources are otherwise reliable and independent and provide significant coverage.
The purpose of the restrictions on media of limited interest and limited circulation is to meet the ultimate purpose of notability, which is to include in Wikipedia 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".