Journalism study finds growing concerns lead to increased levels of denial
The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism is at it again, releasing its latest study . Oh, and the corporate spinners are at it again, trying to make everything sound wonderful when it doesn’t seem believable.
A couple of key findings:
In the past three years, 85% of large daily newspapers and 52% of smaller ones have cut their staffs.
Loss of institutional memory was the number one concern among surveyed editors. Forty-one percent offered comments about losing veteran staff, followed by 37% about the general loss of staff, and 6% were concerned about loss of space.
Forty-eight percent of those surveyed say the tension between the speed, depth and interactivity of the Web compared to the reduction in journalistic standards and accuracy is a concern.
And then, at the end of the laundry list of worries and “wow, that’s why my local newspaper isn’t what it used to be” entries, comes this beauty: 56% believe their product is better than three years ago.
Um, huh?
The staffing levels are down. The news hole is smaller. The news they are covering doesn’t touch on in-depth investigating reporting the way it used to. There is a concern over decreases in journalistic standards and accuracy.
And, let’s face it, the general public doesn’t think too highly of the media either in terms of ability to get the story right or report on the right story in the first place.
But more than half of the editors think their product is better than three years ago?
Now that’s a story – or should I say a tall tale?
If you really want to protect excellence in journalism, stop surveying the editors. Get to the heart of the matter and talk to reporters and their readers. Because that’s a survey you could learn something from.
Photo by Ville Miettinen
Tags: journalism, Media, newspapers
August 11th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
While the revenue and staffing at my paper have been consistent, I will agree with the editors on this one. The industry is moving toward smaller, more targeted publications such as a specific community’s shopping guide, etc. Let’s be honest, you can get national news online a lot faster than a weekly pub would have the same story. Just like the automotive industry, the newspaper industry is transitioning to keep up with the times. It will be interesting to see what a newspaper looks like in 5 or 10 years.
August 12th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Take a look at the FREEP website… unless you’re talking about some serious scandal you’ll get twenty times the amount of comments on the most innocuous sports story as you’ll get for hard news.
Ultimately newspapers have to sell. They need to sell copies and sell copy. It’s a business. They’re giving the people what they want. For whatever (or what little) it’s worth.
–Nick
http://www.RightMichigan.com
August 15th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
It will be interesting to see what newspapers look like in 5-10 years because they may not exist, in hard copy form anyway.
The business model is changing and people want more localized content. I saw an article recently suggesting the way to save newspapers was to localize content and shoot it to people’s cell phones. That feeds the desire for timely, relevant content.
That’s an interesting concept, but a thick Sunday paper with morning coffee is always a nice situation. I hope that’s always an option in the future.