Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
For more than two generations, the percentage of Americans reading newspapers has been shrinking. Until 1970 the problem was partially masked by population growth. Overall circulation kept rising. Through the 1980s most of the circulation losses were occurring in afternoon papers. The survivors were stable and financially robust.
Network television news was once the most trusted source of information in America. It also had a monopoly over pictures and television reporting from across the country and around the world.
The convenience of 24-hour cable TV news, offering the latest breaking headlines at any time of the day or night, represents an enormous structural advantage for cable over network television. Cable has become the television news medium of choice. The network most cited as the No. 1 source for news remains CNN, preferred over the broadcast networks and even its cable rivals.
In nearly every aspect of local television – from viewership to economics to ownership structure – there are mixed signals of health and challenge. The next few years may determine whether the industry ultimately heads up or down. But at least one survey shows more people who work in local television news are pessimistic than optimistic about the industry’s future.
Magazines often are harbingers of change. When large social, economic or technological shifts begin to reshape the culture, magazines frequently are the first media to move, and the structure of the industry is one reason. Unlike newspapers, most magazines are not so tied to a specific geographic area, but are instead centered on interests or niches. Writers are looking for trends. Publishers can more quickly than in other media add and subtract titles aimed at specific audience segments or interests. Advertisers, in turn, can take their dollars to hot titles of the moment aimed at particular demographics.
Radio might be called journalism’s forgotten but stable middle child.
Of all the sectors of the news media, the Ethnic and Alternative media in America are still in many ways the most fluid.
Beyond all the facts and figures concerning the American news media, there are the attitudes and opinions journalists themselves have about their industry and profession. This section of the State of the News Media 2004 report details the results of a survey of more than 500 national and local reporters, editors and executives.
The impact of the CAN-SPAM legislation is mixed, but not very encouraging so far. A new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project between February 3 and March 1, 2004 shows the following: 29% of email users say they have reduced their overal…
WASHINGTON — The distress of Internet users at spam has increased in recent months and growing numbers of Internet users are becoming disillusioned with email, despite the first national anti-spam legislation which went into effect on January 1. A new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project between February 3 and March 1, […]
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