Doug wrote:
>I'd love to see someone like Pew do an analysis of where all this
>info on the web comes from. Bloggers blog and re-blog info
>ultimately traceable to Reuters and the NYT. Much of broadcast news
>is picked off the front page of that morning's Times.
Here's something in the ballpark:
The State of the News Media 2009 is the sixth edition of our annual report on the health and status of American journalism.
Our goals are to take stock of the revolution occurring in how Americans get information and provide a resource for citizens, journalists and researchers to make their own assessments. To do so we gather in one place as much data as possible about all the major sectors of journalism, identify trends, mark key indicators, note areas for further inquiry.
For each area we have produced original research and aggregated existing data into a narrative on the state of journalism that we hope is the most comprehensive anywhere. Statistical data also exists in an interactive format (see our index of charts), which allows users to customize their own graphics. The report also includes A Year in the News, a comprehensive content analysis of media performance based on more than 70,000 stories from 48 news outlets across five media sectors, as well as a special look at Hispanic and African American media and an Interactive Topline that lets users explore the data for themselves. This year's study also includes special reports on Lessons of the Election, New Ventures online, a content analysis of Citizen Media in 46 communities. And coming soon: a Survey of Online Journalists and a look back at Campaign Coverage.
This report is the work of the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, a nonpolitical, nonpartisan research institute. The study is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and was produced with the help of a number of authors and collaborators , including Rick Edmonds of the Poynter Institute and a host of industry readers.
The full report is comprehensive, totaling nearly 180,000 words.
http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2009/index.htm
Here's an AP story on the report:
Journalism People want news, but old model broken Tuesday, March 17, 2009 3:11 AM
By David Bauder Associated Press d NEW YORK -- The state of journalism is bleak, but an annual study of the industry suggests that hope shouldn't be lost.
While the business model of many news organizations seems to be fracturing, consumers aren't losing interest in news, says the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Its sixth annual "State of the News Media" survey was released Sunday.
The recent news hasn't been good. The Seattle Post- Intelligencer will print its final edition today; the Rocky Mountain News in Denver stopped publishing Feb. 27. Four newspaper companies have sought bankruptcy protection in the past few months.
Yet The New York Times and The Washington Post have bigger audiences than ever, when online readership is added, said Tom Rosenstiel, project director. Traffic to the top 50 online news sites rose by 27 percent in 2008, the report said.
"This is not an industry that is dying," Rosenstiel said. "This is an industry that is in disorientation."
Local TV news is also in trouble. Revenues fell by 7 percent in 2008 -- which is eye-opening considering that it was an election year and stations typically see an influx in political advertising.
Besides the Internet, cable news flourished, mostly because of its focus on the presidential election, the report said.
Newspapers have failed to determine how to make their Web sites profitable, Rosenstiel said.
Still, some strategies remain to be tried, he said. Newspapers could copy the cable industry, in which a fee to news producers is built into a customer's monthly charge for Internet service. They could set up online "malls" for merchants or create specialized services for information that people might pay to receive.
Partnerships have been born because of the tough financial times, such as affiliates of NBC and Fox sharing video for breaking news events, the report said.
With layoffs prevalent, power is shifting away from institutions to individual journalists, Rosenstiel said.
Journalists are trying different ways to get their work out, with Web sites such as MinnPost for arts coverage in Minneapolis. Globalpost.com pays a small fee to keep journalists working worldwide.
"The news audience is out there and is in some ways growing," Rosenstiel said. "If the industry cannot find a way to monetize that, it may be that individual journalists and others will."