Here is the second in my reports about the Vocus “State of the Media 2010” webinar (http://tinyurl.com/ybglakz) and accompanying white paper (http://www.vocus.com/state-of-the-media/index.asp).
Here are some highlights of their report about newspapers. I have already reported on magazines and will report on broadcast media in subsequent blog posts.
In 2009, 293 newspapers folded, nearly 100 of them in the first quarter alone. 14 were dailies, 230 were weeklies.
There were 421 layoffs in newsrooms of major newspapers.
At the same time, 45 new papers were launched, many of which are online or Web-first.
The majority of the new papers (29 of the total) are weeklies.
Being online only is definitely a trend. For example, the Christian Science Monitor is online except for one print edition a week.
Content sharing is growing. For example, the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram share some content.
The result, obviously, is less competition in content between the newspapers. However, the newspapers are competing with bloggers and online news sites.
Unfortunately, the quality of journalism is suffering. “Once, three or four sources were required for a newspaper to go with a story. Now just one source is enough for a blogger to put it on the Web site and spur a heated debate.”
People have not reacted well to the notion of paying for content online. The exceptions are mainly niche publications, like The Wall Street Journal, which can be essential to people in that market.
The good news is that there is a rise of nonprofit, investigative journalism, such as Propublica, Chicago News Co-op and the Bay Area News Project.
More articles on the media are available at https://communicationsplus.net/PRarticles.html.
The last season of “The Wire” was all about the slow, steady decline of The Baltimore Sun. Pink slips cleared out the newsroom, which was presided over by two genial-seeming but slippery guys who were more about the sensationalism of prospective stories than their bona fide newsworthiness.
Interesting observation about bloggers. And disheartening that they can move forward with such skimpy sources.
Still, time is at a premium for all of us, and this seems to be driving the insatiable demand for “click and skim” rather than “read and ruminate.” I see the print newspaper salespeople outside Trader Joe’s pretty often and wonder how their sales are doing.