Americans Show Signs of Leaving a News Outlet, Citing Less Information

Pew reporting:
By Jodi Enda and Amy Mitchell of the Pew Research Center
Faced with shrinking revenue and dwindling audiences, news organizations in recent years have slashed staffs and reduced coverage. Most news consumers are little aware of the financial struggles that led to these cuts, a new Pew Research Center survey finds. Nevertheless, a significant percentage of them not only have noticed a difference in the quantity or quality of news, but have stopped reading, watching or listening to a news source because of it.
Nearly one-third—31%—of people say they have deserted a particular news outlet because it no longer provides the news and information they had grown accustomed to, according to the survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults in early 2013. And those most likely to have walked away are better educated, wealthier and older than those who did not—in other words, they are people who tend to be most prone to consume and pay for news.
 
http://stateofthemedia.org/2013/special-reports-landing-page/citing-reduced-quality-many-americans-abandon-news-outlets/

News Use across Social Media Platforms

Pew reporting:
How do different social networking websites stack up when it comes to news? How many people engage with news across multiple social sites? And what are their news consumption habits on traditional platforms? As part of an ongoing examination of social media and news, the Pew Research Center in collaboration with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation analyzed the characteristics of news consumers and the size of their population across 11 social networking sites.
News plays a varying role across the social networking sites.¹ Roughly half of both Facebook and Twitter users get news on those sites, earlier reports have shown. On YouTube, that is true of only one-fifth of its user base, and for LinkedIn, the number is even smaller. And Pinterest, a social pin board for visual content, is hardly used for news at all.


he proportions who get news, combined with the total reach of a site, show how many U.S. adults are learning about events and issues through each social networking site. Facebook is by far the largest social networking site among U.S. adults, and with half of its users getting news there, is also the largest among U.S. adults when it comes to getting news. As discussed in an earlier report, roughly two-thirds (64%) of U.S. adults use the site, and half of those users get news there—amounting to 30% of the general population. YouTube has the next greatest reach in terms of general usage, at 51% of U.S. adults. Thus, even though only a fifth of its users get news there, that amounts to 10% of the adult population, which puts it on par with Twitter. Twitter reaches just 16% of U.S. adults, but half (8% of U.S. adults) use it for news. reddit is a news destination for nearly two-thirds of its users (62%). But since just 3% of the U.S. population uses reddit, that translates to 2% of the population that gets news there...
http://www.journalism.org/2013/11/14/news-use-across-social-media-platforms/1_news-consumption-varies-widely/

Facebook users get news from family & friends, Twitter users get news from journalists

Poynter reprting:

Today’s annual report on the State of the News Media shows that new technologies really are pressing journalists to do much more with much less.
Last week, we learned that newspaper industry ad revenue was down 7.3 percent this year to its lowest level since 1984 (or 1954, adjusted for inflation). As a result, newsrooms continue to shrink.
But The Project For Excellence in Journalism’s report shows us that the needs and demands of the audience are growing and fragmenting.
Social media is an important source of news, the report says, but remains smaller and only “supplemental” to other discovery methods like directly visiting a news website, searching the Web or browsing an aggregator.
People who own smartphones or tablets are using them heavily to consume news, but they also continue to frequently use a laptop or desktop computer to get news...
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/166909/growing-social-mobile-audiences-force-journalists-to-publish-on-more-platforms-with-less/

About a fifth of Facebook and Twitter users often get news from newspapers, too

Poynter reporting:
21 percent of Facebook users and 18 percent of Twitter users tell the Pew Research Journalism Project they get news “often” from print newspapers. The organization continues to look at how social media users get news.

YouTube, LinkedIn and Google Plus news consumers are more likely than Facebook and Twitter news consumers to watch cable news. Twitter news consumers are among the least likely to turn to local and cable TV. And nearly four-in-ten LinkedIn news consumers listen to news on the radio, compared to about a quarter of the general population.

Rethinking how you utilize social media metrics in practice

Knight Digital Media Center reporting:
Social media metrics can help you tell whether your engagement efforts are gaining any traction in your community. But how can you know what this data is really telling you, and how can social media metrics support sound strategic decisions?
A recent article by Nancy K. Baym in the peer-reviewed online journal First Monday, “Data not seen: The uses and shortcomings of social media metrics,” explores how to make sense of the numbers.

1. Not all followers are equally valuable. A musician said in interview that he has had supporters with millions of followers recommend him on Twitter from their accounts, resulting in 70 clicks through to his website. Other advocates, with only 2,000 followers, prompted 300 click-throughs following their endorsement. This means that attention is the “currency,” not how many people you’re distributing information to. It is important to push content toward those who personally identify with your message or brand—this will drive more engagement in the long run.
2. Audience size may be misleading. The prevalence of “dead followers” (i.e., inactive users attached to profile) and idle followers has been revealed in recent months, prompting a discussion about how effective quantifying the audience is in determining reach. Followers who actively share media are many times more valuable than those who are passive, content with the one-way street. Gauging the active:inactive followers ratio and manipulating it to score the most engaging users possible helps improve one’s outreach exponentially. One way of accomplishing this is to personally reach out to active users on the site, starting a dialogue that results in them lending support to your brand.
3. Tailor messaging to attract influential users...
4. http://www.knightdigitalmediacenter.org/news/2013/11/rethinking-how-you-utilize-social-media-metrics-practice 

UK Consumers Still Opposed to Newspaper Paywalls

eMarketer reporting at
http://www.emarketer.com/Article/UK-Consumers-Still-Opposed-Newspaper-Paywalls/1010377

Digital versions of The Times and The Sunday Times newspapers were put behind paywalls over three years ago—in July 2010. And while their News UK stable mate, The Sun, also put up a paywall this year, the majority of UK news media brands continue to operate a free-content model.
With so much news content available for free, it’s perhaps unsurprising that attitudes toward paywalls in the UK remain largely negative. According to a Kantar survey conducted by Lightspeed Research, 80% of UK internet users polled in August 2013 considered newspaper paywalls either “a bad idea” or “pointless.” While 23% felt they made sense in some circumstances, only 12% considered them necessary.

Read more at http://www.emarketer.com/Article/UK-Consumers-Still-Opposed-Newspaper-Paywalls/1010377#6pCITWgbhdwQ3ejP.99

Digital versions of The Times and The Sunday Times newspapers were put behind paywalls over three years ago—in July 2010. And while their News UK stable mate, The Sun, also put up a paywall this year, the majority of UK news media brands continue to operate a free-content model.
With so much news content available for free, it’s perhaps unsurprising that attitudes toward paywalls in the UK remain largely negative. According to a Kantar survey conducted by Lightspeed Research, 80% of UK internet users polled in August 2013 considered newspaper paywalls either “a bad idea” or “pointless.” While 23% felt they made sense in some circumstances, only 12% considered them necessary.

Whether or not paywalls are a good idea, the growing importance of digital in the news brand equation is certainly making the debate relevant. UK consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable accessing news content in the digital realm. According to a March survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), among British internet users, reading or downloading digital news was a common activity, particularly among younger demographics. It was cited by around 70% of the two youngest demographic groups, and by a sizeable majority of those ages 35 to 54.

Read more at http://www.emarketer.com/Article/UK-Consumers-Still-Opposed-Newspaper-Paywalls/1010377#6pCITWgbhdwQ3ejP.99

Digital versions of The Times and The Sunday Times newspapers were put behind paywalls over three years ago—in July 2010. And while their News UK stable mate, The Sun, also put up a paywall this year, the majority of UK news media brands continue to operate a free-content model.
With so much news content available for free, it’s perhaps unsurprising that attitudes toward paywalls in the UK remain largely negative. According to a Kantar survey conducted by Lightspeed Research, 80% of UK internet users polled in August 2013 considered newspaper paywalls either “a bad idea” or “pointless.” While 23% felt they made sense in some circumstances, only 12% considered them necessary.

Whether or not paywalls are a good idea, the growing importance of digital in the news brand equation is certainly making the debate relevant. UK consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable accessing news content in the digital realm. According to a March survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), among British internet users, reading or downloading digital news was a common activity, particularly among younger demographics. It was cited by around 70% of the two youngest demographic groups, and by a sizeable majority of those ages 35 to 54.

Read more at http://www.emarketer.com/Article/UK-Consumers-Still-Opposed-Newspaper-Paywalls/1010377#6pCITWgbhdwQ3ejP.99

Digital versions of The Times and The Sunday Times newspapers were put behind paywalls over three years ago—in July 2010. And while their News UK stable mate, The Sun, also put up a paywall this year, the majority of UK news media brands continue to operate a free-content model.
With so much news content available for free, it’s perhaps unsurprising that attitudes toward paywalls in the UK remain largely negative. According to a Kantar survey conducted by Lightspeed Research, 80% of UK internet users polled in August 2013 considered newspaper paywalls either “a bad idea” or “pointless.” While 23% felt they made sense in some circumstances, only 12% considered them necessary.

Whether or not paywalls are a good idea, the growing importance of digital in the news brand equation is certainly making the debate relevant. UK consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable accessing news content in the digital realm. According to a March survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), among British internet users, reading or downloading digital news was a common activity, particularly among younger demographics. It was cited by around 70% of the two youngest demographic groups, and by a sizeable majority of those ages 35 to 54.

Read more at http://www.emarketer.com/Article/UK-Consumers-Still-Opposed-Newspaper-Paywalls/1010377#6pCITWgbhdwQ3ejP.99

It’s the engagement, stupid: Jim Chisholm says newspapers need to do more to earn attention

Nieman Journalism Lab reporting:

Newspapers’ declining hold on audience attention began long before the web came along, the Scottish newspaper consultant argues, and tablets are one of the best hopes for reclaiming it.

Email

“There is no statistical evidence anywhere that print circulations are declining because of the Internet. I’ve said this many times, and everybody tells me I’m talking complete rubbish,” says Jim Chisholm. “Circulations in the U.S.A. were declining long before anyone invented the word ‘WWW’…The cause of decline in analog consumption is more to do with changes in society than it is to do with the emergence of the Internet.”
That argument — that the decline of newspapers’ fortunes has roots much deeper than the proliferation of screens in our lives — may go against the flow, but Chisholm, a Scottish newspaper consultant, believes it’s important to acknowledge it if newspapers are going to thrive. He presented his ideas at this year’s WAN-IFRA newspaper congress in Bangkok (which Frédéric Filloux deftly summarized), making a case that online content is, at this point, no replacement for print when it comes to reader engagement — and, therefore, advertising revenue.

Shallow engagement

How newspapers are faring online depends on how you look at the numbers, which Chisholm draws from comScore and Nielsen. On one hand, newspapers are among the most popular destinations for Internet users in the United States — 61.5 percent of Americans with an Internet connection visited a newspaper’s website in May, for instance.
But that same data says that Americans often don’t go much further than a newspaper’s homepage and don’t spend much time actually reading its content. Newspapers represented just 1.5 percent of pageviews, 7.9 percent of total visits, and 1.7 percent of the total time that Americans spent online in May, Chisholm says...http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8672091774752856243#editor/target=post;postID=965910540641669012

What Newspapers Can Learn From Brands

mediashift reporting:
A few weeks ago, the Financial Times announced it was taking the next steps in its “digital first” strategy, which includes consolidating its print edition, shifting from “reactive reporting” to “news in context,” and altering its production schedule to serve an audience that expects updates throughout the day.
There’s been so much conversation lately about how everyone is a publisher and how much brands are learning from media in creating their own “branded content.” But, as the Financial Times move shows, the inverse is also true. What FT is doing might seem innovative for a newspaper, but it’s the kind of strategy global brands have been using for years: You have to meet your audience. That means creating content for conversation, providing information that’s useful or elicits an emotional response, and crafting a voice. Crafting a voice is a major strategy brands have adopted to get digital content right, and it’s something that traditional media outlets should mimic.
The modern audience has less time and more options for news than ever before. To make a newspaper’s content stand out, it’s essential to provide content that captures attention and sparks the viewer’s imagination. In other words, it’s essential for a newspaper to think like a brand.

Engagement

Engagement is one of the biggest challenges facing the newspaper industry. The Nieman Journalism Lab reported in June that while 61.5 percent of American Internet users reported visiting a newspaper’s website in May, just 1.7 percent of the total time Americans spent online that month was on a newspaper’s website.
The key to engaging the modern audience is to make shareable content. We live in the age of social, and if a story doesn’t elicit an emotional or intellectual response in a reader, it will get passed by. That doesn’t mean every post has to be funny or highbrow, but it does mean that content should have a voice.
Brands, especially the larger ones, have understood this for a long time. Giving a multi-national conglomerate a voice is by no means an easy feat, but it’s one of the most important things that brands are doing to enhance their reputations. Examples of brands with strong voices are GE and IBM, which have crafted their content around innovations in science and technology. Both sponsor general interest science and technology magazines with large followings, as well as Tumblr blogs showcasing their work.

Value-added context

FT’s addition of “value-added context” to its digital first strategy underscores the importance of adding voice to content. Changing from reactive reporting to value-added news — meaning adding analysis and point of view pieces — is smart.
The race to be first in reporting a story is leading to irrelevant news that doesn’t make the audience any smarter, well informed or engaged. People are emotional and pay close attention to things with context and connection. Social currency is more important than ever, and if a story lacks a voice and contextualizing information, it’s more likely to be overlooked and unshared.

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2013/11/what-newspapers-can-learn-from-brands/?utm_source=MediaShift+Daily&utm_campaign=0c43a0b306-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_70e55682fc-0c43a0b306-286200861

 

Brands Missing Out On Audience Development

Marketing Daily reporting:
As powerful as digital publishing exec Jeff Rohrs believes content marketing and social media can be, he kept noticing something odd: Lots of great brand content, but no real plan to make sure the right people found it. “There was a giant hole in all the conversations I was having, and this persistent, old-fashioned idea that ‘if we build it, they will come.’”
His contention is that brands need to do a much better job developing digital distribution strategies, leading him to write Audience: Marketing in the Age of Subscribers, Fans & Followers. Rohrs tells Marketing Daily what he thinks is missing.
Q: So tell us more about this organizational sinkhole.
A: Within companies, everyone's responsible for producing their own stuff, often thinking about it on a campaign or even day-to-day basis. So there is someone making sure stuff gets re-tweeted. And there's often a director of content marketing. But there was no equivalent title of, let's say, “senior director of audience development.” And that means lots of missed opportunities. The assumption is that there was this bigger, engaged audience ready to eat that content up, but then there is no person or team to make that happen. My point is, that should be a core marketing responsibility.
Q: Is there an example of a brand you think is acing audience development?...
Q: Who is doing it badly?
A: I don't like to call brands out by name, but if you look at last year's Super Bowl advertisers, you'll see plenty -- almost none had any kind of call to action in their ads. One car company, for example, paid something like $3.8 million for one spot, advertising a car that wasn't coming out for months. The final frame was just the logo and a Facebook URL. That's a huge leap of faith. They should have done something to encourage people to opt in to some kind of direct relationship: Email us, follow us on Instagram. Something.
Q: So it's a lost opportunity?
A: Yes. If we get people to enter into a permission-based marketing channel, it lowers my cost to reach them and speak to them. That car company missed a tremendous rollout opportunity.
Q: What's another success story?
A: Oreo. So much has been written about “the tweet heard ’round the world” from last year's Super Bowl, as if it's a social story. But it's not. It's an audience story...

Visual jobs in newsrooms have fallen by nearly half since 2000

Poynter reporting:
Staff jobs for photographers, artists and videographers reported in the American Society of News Editors’ annual census have dropped 43 percent since 2000, Monica Anderson writes.

By comparison, the number of full-time newspaper reporters and writers dropped by 32%—from 25,593 to 17,422. In the same period, 27% of copy and layout editor and online producer jobs were lost, falling from 10,901 to 7,980.

In the last three years, Anderson notes, jobs in those categories have fallen 18 percent, much faster than copy editors or reporters.

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/229302/visual-jobs-in-newsrooms-have-fallen-by-nearly-half-since-2000/

Finnish daily piloting solar-charged e-reader giveaway

journalism.co.uk reporting:
Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat is testing pushing their content to an e-reader that does not require mains charging or batteries. Starting in January, 300 readers will participate in a pilot test programme and receive a free solar-charged device which retails at €40.

The current device has a glass screen but the next generation will be made of a flexible plastic that can be rolled, much in the way as a newspaper can.

The Finnish news publisher is keen to test whether giving away digital paper-like e-readers to subscribers is a cheaper solution than print distribution.

During a meeting organised by Poland's Chamber of Publishers, Janne Kaijärvi, chief media officer of Finland's Leia Media, which makes the device, demonstrated the new generation e-reader. The device, known as ePaper, can be charged by solar or artificial, in-door light.

Presenting the fully functional device, Kaijärvi explained how publishers are searching for new ways of distributing their content. "Within the past six years publishers have lost €51 billion worth in ads. Two global companies own almost 70 per cent of the advertising market in the US and western Europe – Google own 53 per cent and Facebook 16 per cent. The ratio of dollars lost in print advertising to those earned in digital is 16:1," explained Kaijärvi.

"I'm not trying to prove our solution is the best one ever created," Kaijärvi continued. "What we know for sure is that if you can make something more convenient, you can make some money out of that".

http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/finnish-daily-piloting-solar-charged-e-reader-giveaway/s2/a554680/

Sanoma restructure: Is this how consumer media goes digital?

MediaBriefing reporting:
Just two weeks ago we wrote about French publisher Lagardére's plans to offload 10 of its magazine titles as it tries to build a digital future.
Now Finnish publisher Sanoma announced its own wide-ranging plans to close 32 of its 250 magazines and focus on 17 brands which "share the capability to transcend into digital media formats", along with a restructure of the whole business that will also affect its Finish newspaper and TV portfolio.
The move is driven by the firm's stuttering financial performance:
-- Losses: For the first nine months of 2013, Sanoma lost €294.3 million, compared to a profit of €158.6 in 2012.
-- Print ads: Down 20 percent.
-- Revenues: Total revenues down 7.1 percent to €1.7 billion.
CEO Harri-Pekka Kaukonen summed up the core challenge Sanoma faces:

New technologies are fundamentally changing the behavior of media consumers. Advertisers are following consumers. This implies a rapid increase in advertising in digital channels that enable targeting, measuring and performance-based pricing.

That's a concise description of the problem, but what's Sanoma's solution?...

...
Two magazine culls do not make a trend, but what both Sanoma and Lagardére are doing is the logical response to the collapse of print circulations and ad revenue.
Choosing which brands have a future, and where to invest to build new brands and services, is the central question on the minds of legacy consumer media organisations. There are many more brand culls and restructures to come.

http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/what-would-a-digitally-successful-sanoma-look-like

Native advertising: How news sites separate church and state

journalism.co.uk reporting:
Native advertising has been a key trend of 2013, with many publishers keen to benefit from this revenue stream.
Sometimes called sponsored or branded content, it is a form of advertising that moves beyond the advertorial.
"It is content that is created for or provided by a brand or an advertiser that is then surfaced on a publisher's platform," according to Raju Narisetti, senior vice-president and deputy head of strategy at News Corporation.
The Huffington Post, in conjunction with parent company AOL, last month published a report which proposed that native advertising is "sponsored content, which is relevant to the consumer experience, which is not interruptive, and which looks and feels similar to its editorial environment".
Perhaps the easiest way to understand it is by looking at a couple of examples, such as the Guardian's 'what to wear on a date' video, sponsored by John Lewis, with clothes featured in the video from the department store, and BuzzFeed's '20 coolest hybrid animals', created for hybrid car Toyota Prius.
Many publishers see native advertising as a huge opportunity.
"We will participate very aggressively in this space," Narisetti said, referring to News Corp titles the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and the company's Australian assets.
"We will go after the revenue, we will go after helping big brands figure out how to do this well, but we will do it with very clear, transparent labelling so there is no confusion in the minds of our audiences," he told us in this podcast on native advertising.
"We are starting to engage big brands and big advertisers with native advertising concepts and ideas, and we are prepared to not only run it but also help them create content," he explained.
Separating church and state
The Wall Street Journal is one of a number of publishers creating content on behalf of brands. But, crucially, it is not a task of newsroom journalists.There is never any question that a Wall Street Journal newsroom staffer is creating content for a brandRaju Narisetti, News Corp
"We will never have our journalists write that kind of content," Narisetti said. "There is never any question that a Wall Street Journal newsroom staffer is creating content for a brand."
At the Wall Street Journal paid-for content is created by a "custom publishing arm" within the advertising department. It "has a lot of seasoned former journalists who can produce the kind of Wall Street Journal-level quality content that a brand might want", Narisetti explained...
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/native-advertising-how-news-sites-separate-church-and-state/s2/a554648/

October 24, 2013 The Role of News on Facebook

PEW reporting:
On Facebook, the largest social media platform, news is a common but incidental experience, according to an initiative of Pew Research Center in collaboration with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Overall, about half of adult Facebook users, 47%, “ever” get news there. That amounts to 30% of the population.
Most U.S. adults do not go to Facebook seeking news out, the nationally representative online survey of 5,173 adults finds. Instead, the vast majority of Facebook news consumers, 78%, get news when they are on Facebook for other reasons. And just 4% say it is the most important way they get news. As one respondent summed it up, “I believe Facebook is a good way to find out news without actually looking for it.”
However, the survey provides evidence that Facebook exposes some people to news who otherwise might not get it. While only 38% of heavy news followers who get news on Facebook say the site is an important way they get news, that figure rises to 47% among those who follow the news less often. “If it wasn’t for Facebook news,” wrote one respondent, “I’d probably never really know what’s going on in the world because I don’t have time to keep up with the news on a bunch of different locations.”
In particular, younger adults, who as a group are less engaged than their elders are with news on other platforms, are as engaged, if not more so, with news on Facebook. Young people (18- to 29– year-olds) account for about a third, 34%, of Facebook news consumers. That far outpaces the 20% that they account for among Facebook users who do not get news on the site.

http://www.journalism.org/2013/10/24/the-role-of-news-on-facebook/

Job 1 for Newspapers: Audience Development

Editor&Publisher reporting:
see http://www.editorandpublisher.com/TopStories/Columns/Job-1-for-Newspapers--Audience-Development

While strategic audience development ought to be the top priority at every newspaper, efforts toward fulfilling this vital mission are fitful and far between at many publications. This has got to change, if the industry intends to sustain its strength.    - See more at: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/TopStories/Columns/Job-1-for-Newspapers--Audience-Development#sthash.CzkMYv2R.dpuf

While strategic audience development ought to be the top priority at every newspaper, efforts toward fulfilling this vital mission are fitful and far between at many publications. This has got to change, if the industry intends to sustain its strength.    - See more at: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/TopStories/Columns/Job-1-for-Newspapers--Audience-Development#sthash.CzkMYv2R.dpuf

While strategic audience development ought to be the top priority at every newspaper, efforts toward fulfilling this vital mission are fitful and far between at many publications. This has got to change, if the industry intends to sustain its strength.    - See more at: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/TopStories/Columns/Job-1-for-Newspapers--Audience-Development#sthash.CzkMYv2R.dpuf

The bad news for newspapers is that a significant majority of the adults in the typical community don’t subscribe to the paper in either its print or digital incarnations. But the flip side of this problem is that the abundant population of non-readers in every community represents a substantial base of potential consumers for the transformative and delightful new products that publishers could bring to market – if they put their minds to it.   - See more at: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/TopStories/Columns/Job-1-for-Newspapers--Audience-Development#sthash.CzkMYv2R.dpuf

While strategic audience development ought to be the top priority at every newspaper, efforts toward fulfilling this vital mission are fitful and far between at many publications. This has got to change, if the industry intends to sustain its strength.    - See more at: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/TopStories/Columns/Job-1-for-Newspapers--Audience-Development#sthash.CzkMYv2R.dpuf

Are Are Photojournalists A Digital Casualty?

NetNewsCheck reporting:
On May 30, the Sun-Times laid off its entire photography staff of 28, including Pulitzer Prize winner John White, in a move management deemed essential to clear the way for more online video. The story sent shock waves through just about every newsroom in North America and far beyond media circles.
News staffs so expert at asking tough questions for a living now had a new, anxious one to ponder: Is the photojournalism we know as much a relic as the musty old darkroom?
"I think photojournalism is coming to a dead end, at least in the way it was practiced in the late 1970s and mid-’80s,” says Mark Hinojosa, director of interactive media at the Detroit News. As a veteran journalist who rose through the ranks as a photographer, Hinojosa says this realization saddens him. And he’s hanging on in Detroit, at least for now.
“We still have a full photo staff,” he says, “but I could easily see a day when the staff is much smaller and it’s used for big events, and the day-to-day stuff will be handled by reporters. It will be OK, but something will be lost. Why? Because a writer doesn't see the visual potential in a story, and can't always find something that's transformative.”
Look beyond the Midwest — where reports of impending layoffs currently dog photographers and reporters at the Chicago Tribune — and you’ll see much evidence that photojournalism has entered its twilight hours...
http://www.netnewscheck.com/article/30055/are-photojournalists-a-digital-casualty

Few people frequently turn to Twitter for breaking news in the U.S.

Poynter reporting:
Sixteen percent of Twitter users “say they turn to Twitter frequently for breaking news,” a poll by Associated Press and CNBC says. “That said, 44 percent of users do so at least some of the time.” And yet far fewer Americans get news from Twitter (8 percent) than from Facebook (30 percent), separate analysis the Pew Research Center released Monday says.
Forty-five percent of those who use Twitter to get news are 18-29 years old — more than the 30 percent of Twitter users overall who are in that demographic, Pew previously reported. Both organizations found a similar number of Americans use the service — one in five, CNBC-AP finds, 16 percent, Pew says.

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/228401/few-people-frequently-turn-to-twitter-for-breaking-news/

FT in Q3: Is this what a sustainable digital news subscription strategy looks like?

the mediabriefing: reporting:
The Financial Times is often seen as one of the first canaries sent down the online news charging mine.
That canary is still very much alive and chirping, but in Pearson's nine-month interim statement FT Group revenues are flat so far in 2013, not normally an encouraging sign for any company.  
In 2011 Pearson described digital subscriptions, which are up 24 percent year on year to 387,000, as the "engine of growth" for the group. Yet in 2012 revenues were up just four percent year on year, and it doesn't look like there will be any top line growth in 2013. Should Pearson be worried?
The FT Group's changing revenue profile suggests there shouldn't be too much cause for alarm.
In 2012:
-- 50 percent of FT Group revenues came from digital and services, up from 31 percent in 2008.
-- 61 percent of revenues came from content, up from 48 percent in 2008.
This is a rebalancing away from print and advertising towards digital content sales. And a look at how people are buying the FT shows the primary driver behind that shift...http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/is-this-what-a-sustainable-newspaper-subscription-strategy-looks-like

What’s Behind The Washington Post Sale

PEW reporting:

The stunning announcement on Monday of the sale of The Washington Post to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos caught many off guard. The Post has been owned by the Graham family for 80 years. But recent years brought steep revenue and circulation declines and as chief executive Donald Graham put it in a letter to the staff, “the newspaper business continued to bring up questions to which we had no answers.” In Bezos, The Post—and a handful of smaller papers owned by the company—get an owner who is considered one of the most successful business and technology entrepreneurs in the country. Bezos is considered to have a strong understanding of audience needs and the financial wherewithal to tolerate sluggish revenue numbers, at least for a while. Still, the challenges are large and not unique to The Post. Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project, which has been tracking the industry for over a decade, puts the sale in context.
http://www.journalism.org/2013/08/07/whats-behind-the-washington-post-sale/

Struggling industry throttles newspaper metrics

Ken Doctor reporting:
Unable to arrest years of declining ad sales and sliding print circulation, two key trade groups representing the newspaper industry have done the next best thing: 

They effectively have stopped reporting on the metrics that make it possible to measure – and, therefore, understand and manage – the industry’s ongoing challenges. 
Earlier this year, the Newspaper Association of America, an industry-supported trade organization, decided to stop producing the quarterly revenue reports that have charted the advertising slump that has carved aggregate industry revenues from a record $49.4 billion to $22.3 billion in 2012.
As reported here, my analysis shows that ad sales slipped about 5.5% in the first six months of the year. Assuming the industry does no better or worse in the last half of the year, it is on track to deliver approximately $21 billion in ad sales for all of 2013. 
The NAA, which publishes sales records dating to 1950 here, promises to release a once-a-year revenue report scheduled to debut in March, 2014. 
http://newsosaur.blogspot.fi/2013/10/struggling-industry-throttles-newspaper.html 

The newsonomics of outrageous confidence (of newspapers)

Ken Doctor reporting:
...
Jeff Bezos toured his new Post before closing the sale and wowed a group of very professional skeptics. Orange County Register president Eric Spitz, part of Aaron Kushner’s ownership group, gave a long interview extolling growth and investment. Then John Henry penned an open letter to the good citizens of Boston and beyond, laying out in fine detail why he bought The Boston Globe. (It’s been a good week for Henry.)
Each of these new owners said a number of intriguing things — sentiments and strategies that we can pick over, puncture, and praise. They all surface elements essential to success. Money? Check. A longer-term view? Check. A respect for the long-time community roles of newspapers? Check. A call for new ideas? Check.
But there’s one other commodity that stands out amid them all — the commodity of confidence. In light of financial downturn of the industry, we could even call it outrageous confidence.
...Confidence in the very basis of their businesses — what news media uniquely do for their communities, local or national — has been shaken so much by revenue loss. Publishers — and their workforces who have sensed the fear, uncertainty, and doubt disabling the spirit of the industry — mistook revenue loss (largely in advertising and largely caused by hurricane forces beyond their control) for brand and community value loss.

The huge audience is growing again. 

Paywalls have proven that readers will pay for digital access.

...

We’re at the beginning of a new age of storytelling...

http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/10/the-newsonomics-of-outrageous-confidence/