The state of the American media

Posted by Jeffrey Blyth on 14 March 2006 at 09:52
Tags: Blogs, Journalism, Newspapers, Online, United States

One of the reasons there were so few bidders for the Knight Ridder group was the latest report that the newspaper industry in the US had another difficult year in 2005.

According to the State of the News Media Report 2006, advertising income, circulation figures and stock performance were all down. Big city papers, it was reported, are losing circulation faster than small-town papers. The total decline last year was more than 1,500 million readers. The only exceptions were the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, whose circulations remained steady.

One result has been an increased investment by many newspapers in their web sites – mainly in the hope of capturing new readers. The big question is still whether this investment will pay off. Online revenues are still only a fraction of the income newspapers have been used to collecting from advertising.

At the same time newspapers are having to cut back staff. Lay-offs last year topped 1,500. In the past five years, newspapers here have cut 3,800 jobs – or about seven per cent of their work force. Even the big papers are not exempt: The Washington Post has just announced it is planning to cut 80 jobs – or just under ten per cent – of its newsroom staff. At the same time the Post will expect its staff to contribute more time and effort to its web site, online chat, a news radio station which its has just launched, and its blogs.

Some journalists at the Post complain they are being over-stretched – at the expense of their old regular jobs on the paper. There is also talk at the Post of consolidating some of the paper’s foreign coverage – which either might mean sharing correspondents with other papers or syndicating their reports.

Another big American newspaper having staff problems is Newsday, the Long Island daily. Its problem stems from a scandal which involved inflating circulation figures. About half-a-dozen employees were arrested, including its circulation manager, who admitted inflating the sales figures by almost 20 per cent. In the aftermath, the paper ordered a reassigment of many staff. Many reporters — some say as many as 40 — are fighting back and refusing to take on new jobs. Many objected to being assigned to general new coverage instead of their specialist beats.