Document And Entity Information - shares	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2015	Nov. 03, 2015
Document Information [Line Items]
Document Type	10-Q
Amendment Flag	false
Document Period End Date	Sep. 30, 2015
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2015
Document Fiscal Period Focus	Q3
Entity Registrant Name	SAGA COMMUNICATIONS INC
Entity Central Index Key	0000886136
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--12-31
Entity Filer Category	Accelerated Filer
Trading Symbol	SGA
Common Class A [Member]
Document Information [Line Items]
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		4,968,644
Common Class B [Member]
Document Information [Line Items]
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		843,034

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End date of current fiscal year in the format --MM-DD.

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This is focus fiscal period of the document report. For a first quarter 2006 quarterly report, which may also provide financial information from prior periods, the first fiscal quarter should be given as the fiscal period focus. Values: FY, Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, H1, H2, M9, T1, T2, T3, M8, CY.

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This is focus fiscal year of the document report in CCYY format. For a 2006 annual report, which may also provide financial information from prior periods, fiscal 2006 should be given as the fiscal year focus. Example: 2006.

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Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

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The end date of the period reflected on the cover page if a periodic report. For all other reports and registration statements containing historical data, it is the date up through which that historical data is presented. If there is no historical data in the report, use the filing date. The format of the date is CCYY-MM-DD.

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The type of document being provided (such as 10-K, 10-Q, 485BPOS, etc). The document type is limited to the same value as the supporting SEC submission type, or the word "Other".

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A unique 10-digit SEC-issued value to identify entities that have filed disclosures with the SEC. It is commonly abbreviated as CIK.

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