State of the News Media 2013

From The Denver Post:

http://blogs.denverpost.com/ostrow/f...pej-270x33.jpgPEJ
From bad to worse.
The Pew Research Center’s 2013 report on the State of the News Media brings more sad tidings: a decade of newsroom cuts is being felt. But what did anyone expect? Nearly one-in-three Americans say they have stopped turning to a particular news outlet because it no longer provides the news they were accustomed to getting. Diminished newsroom staffing is having a noticeable effect. Moreover, politicians and corporate entities are better able to bypass traditional media and speak directly to the public, meaning no journalistic filter is in place. Content determined by algorithm, curtailed news coverage on cable, more layoffs (at Time magazine for instance) and continued economic struggles add to the bleak picture for journalism.
The effect on local TV news is profound: “In local TV, sports, weather and traffic now account on average for 40% of the content produced on the newscasts studied while story lengths shrink.” Local TV audiences were down across every key time slot and across all networks in 2012. And items like weather, sports scores and traffic are ripe for picking off by new mobile apps.
For newspapers, the debate over pay walls may be ending with an answer in the affirmative: 450 of the nation’s 1,380 dailies have started or announced plans for some kind of paid content subscription or pay wall plan. With digital advertising growing at an anemic pace, “digital subscriptions are seen as an increasingly vital component of any new business model for journalism,” even though the digital dimes are not replacing the lost print dollars.
Start your week with this handy infographic before diving into the whole depressing report.


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