Annual State-of-Media Report: 2005 'Three Times Worse' Than 2004

By: E&P Staff The annual ?The State of the American News Media? report, to be released Monday, declares that while 2004 was a bad year for the newspaper industry, with circulation and advertising declines, ?2005 was about three times worse" in some ways.

It also asserts that at many old media companies ?the decades-long battle at the top between idealists and accountants is now over. The idealists have lost. The troubles of 2005, especially in print, dealt a further blow to this fight for journalism in the public interest.?

The report quotes an editor a major paper: ?If you argue about public trust today, you will be dismissed as an obstructionist and a romantic.?

In a surprising finding, the report states that the audience for online news appears to have leveled off. The growth now is not in how many people get news online, ?but how often they do so.?

The 700-page report, from the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), reveals that newspapers are expected to have lost about 1,500 jobs in 2005. That represents a drop of about 3,800 jobs, or about 7% since 2000. Since 1990, circulation will have fallen nearly 15% or more than 9 million, on weekdays.

Yet the report concludes that ?any idea that newspapers have turned a corner and are on a rapid course to extinction seems overheated. The circulation declines and job cuts will probably tally at only about 3% for the year. The industry will still post profit margins of 20%. And if one combines print and online, the readership of many newspapers is higher than ever.?

The report also looks in-depth at television, online, blogs, radio and cable., and studies the array of coverage form all sources on a single day (May 11).

?The variety of news sources available today makes relying on a single outlet seem like an outdated idea,? Project Director Tom Rosenstiel said in a statement. ?But consumers need to be careful about where they go and even when. Stories come and go fast and getting a comprehensive picture of the news can be difficult.?

The big question, the report poses, is how long will it take online to get to an economic model that rivals the old media in revenues. ?In the meantime, American newsrooms, already shrinking, may no longer be able to cover the waterfront,? it warns.

Looking at public views of the press, PEJ reports:

"Nearly three quarters (72%) of those surveyed in June 2005 gave the daily newspaper they are 'most familiar with' either a very favorable or mostly favorable rating, according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. That is about the same or slightly higher than ratings for other news sources: local television (73%), network television news (68%), and cable news (67%).

"That is not true, however, for the country?s national newspapers. For large, nationally influential newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, just 38% of the public gives a favorable rating ? nearly half that of the local newspapers. Most analysts explain the gap as one of proximity and connectedness. The closer the staff is to the lives of the readers, the more the readers tend to trust them."

Among other findings, as described by PEJ:

? The new paradox of journalism is more outlets are covering fewer stories. As the number of news outlets grows, generally the audiences of each one shrinks, and news organizations cut back on resources. Yet they still all have to cover the big stories. Thus on most major events, we have more reporters, but fewer stories are being covered generally.

? Among newspapers big city metros appear to be suffering the biggest circulation declines and newsroom cutbacks. The three national newspapers and smaller papers are faring better. These big papers are caught between people having access to national and international sources at one end, and more niche publications on the other.

* In some cities, the numbers alone tell the story. There are roughly half as many reporters covering metropolitan Philadelphia, for instance, as in 1980. The number of newspaper reporters there has fallen from 500 to 220. The pattern at the suburban papers around the city has been similar, though not as extreme.....As recently as 1990, the Philadelphia Inquirer had 46 reporters covering the city. Today it has 24.

?In the last year, the changes in media have intensified, and the problems for print have accelerated,? said Rosenstiel. ?Yet it?s probably glib and even na?ve to say simply that more platforms equal more choices. The content has to come from somewhere, and as older news gathering media decline, some of the strengths they offer in monitoring the powerful and verifying the facts may be weakening as well.?

The study, which contains detailed charts, graphs and citations, can be accessed online at www.stateofthemedia.org as of Monday morning.