The State of the News Media in 2008: More Unraveling Ahead

The Project for Excellence in Journalism yesterday released its latest, comprehensive survey/analysis of the news media. And like most news about big institutions these days, it's mostly frightening.

The big headline: Many things we thought we knew about how digital media is unraveling traditional news media outlets aren't really true. More individuals aren't really creating meaningful news content, the diversity of news platforms (online, podcast, web video, etc.) isn't really translating into a diversity of subjects covered. And while newspaper newsrooms in particular are trying hard to experiment and reinvent, the advertising and marketing department which are expected to generate the revenue which pays for their efforts are lagging behind.

The scariest part of their analysis: news and advertising are decoupling.

Many people don't realize it, but modern news consumers almost never directly pay what it costs to gather the information they absorb. TV, radio and newspapers make most of their money selling their audiences to advertisers, allowing them to offer the news product which creates the audience for free or almost free to the public.

Digital technology is pulling that model apart, like an insistent child tugging on a woven sweater's loose thread. Cynical critic that I am, I think the hidden truth here is that digital media removes a lot of doubt about who is consuming what; on a newspaper website, for example, you can see how many users are reading each story and whether they are local consumers. So advertisers have much more information to lower and target their advertising dollars, which limits revenues for publishers.

Other high points from the PEJ study:

* News is less a finished product and more a continuing service. This is something I've only noticed in part of our work -- namely, the breaking news stuff we do on the Web. But our most popular stuff tells people something they didn't know, or helps them do something they couldn't before.

* Citizen journalism and blog sites are nearly as resistant as old school media in allowing public posting. The hidden truth here is that creating media content is tougher than it looks, especially in news. Most sites are recreating the "gatekeeper" model, where a relatively small circle of contributors create content.

* While newsrooms are working hard to innovate, advertising and marketing departments are having trouble changing their game. This is something I've seen locally; as the established adversing model unravels, business side departments are having a tough time finding new methods to earn the same dollars.

* Story subjects have narrowed in American news media. This is something else I've seen up close. We have more platforms than even here at the Times, but we're chasing a harder-to-reach audience. So our efforts are focused on subjects and approaches which we know our audience finds compelling. Nationally, the PEJ found that more 25 percent of news coverage in 2007 focused on two stories: Iraq and the presidential election.      

Comments

[Chuck Welch]

Eric, I don't think too much of that surprises me. As for the number of sites, from the 80s on, it has been a few dragging the majority into each new endeavor.

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"you can see how many users are reading each story"

I'd like to see what Hoffman calls "Web traffic." So many studies focus on page views. With that measure, popping on a page for 5 seconds is equal to reading every paragraph on the page. I prefer to see how long people stayed on a site.

Most of the time the tech department merely informs you of how many clicked on a link. If you don't measure how long they stay on that page you are not measuring if it gets read.

It's also important to separate how many times the story was clicked the day it was published, and how many times it was clicked through a search.

The day it was published...it's your readers. The days after the story gets much more complex. For example, I gets hits every day for people doing a search on "aerosmith symbol." I seriously doubt they're going to become longtime readers.

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"The hidden truth here is that creating media content is tougher than it looks, especially in news."

True for those completely unfamiliar with news gathering. But, after playing in both sandboxes, I'd say writing a hyperlocal blog is much easier than toiling in corporate news world. I believe the reason so many hyperlocal sites are individually written is a matter of economics. It's cheap to make a blog. There is no need to band together to save costs.

It's also a matter of attitude. Many hyperlocal bloggers are more like newspaper editor/publishers of the old west than 21st century Woodwards, Bernsteins, or Blys.

[Eric Deggans]

Thanks for the comments, Chuck.

I don't know how it works for our news stories, but I can say that for the times' blogs, we can see information on how many unique visitors hit the blog, how mant pageviews a blog gets and how long, on average, each user spends on the blog. We can also see where those hits come from, so we know if the audience is local, national and where it finds us -- through search or otherwise.

Which means advertisers don't have to a buy a page in a newspaper and hope that's near the page everyone seems to read. They can demand enough data from us to see exactly what pages peopel are reading and place their advertising there.

And you have to bear in mind, this study is about large media institutions, mostly. The world of hyperlocal blogs is going to be a lot different than the world of bigger web sites such as the times or big national sites suchas the New York Times.

And even small, hyperlocal sites are finding that the revenue they earn is not enough to maintain the reporting strength necessary for a varied and diverse news menu.

[Chuck Welch]

No problem, Eric. Giving my thoughts is where I excel. Finding places to accept them....well...

I got that the study was the big guys. I looked for the time data, but couldn't find it. I did see a report that the New York Times readership averaged much less than a minute at the site. Open. Scan headlines. Move on.

The key to a lot of the hyperlocal sites is that we do it for love, not money. We won't replace the daily, or even the weekly. We're newspaper boutiques.

Seriously though, a collection of bloggers can swarm report a story. Even while the main stream media is lumbering on. The problem is finding ways to keep them focused long enough to finish the story.

In any case, thanks for the links to the study.