Just the facts: How technology is changing the news
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Getting between the covers
- Caught in the middle with news
- Read all about it
- Where we are now
Caught in the middle with news
In the past, news was delivered and consumed in digestible chunks at predictable times—the morning paper and the evening news. Today, 73% of all Internet users report that they get their news online.[1]
But they’re not relying exclusively—or even primarily—on the websites of major news outlets. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, broadband access has increased not only the frequency by which people get news but also the number of sources they rely on. [3] These findings are consistent with our observations of people like Paul and Rebecca. Pew reports that the increased speed of broadband connections adds to the total number of sources people access and increases the frequency with which they access those sources.
So where does this leave traditional papers? Last year, newspaper print circulation was reported to have dropped by 2.8% in the six-month period ending in September 2006, the biggest drop in 15 years. [4] And, most importantly from the perspective of news organizations, consumers aren’t just switching from the print newspaper to the website counterpart. In other words, Washington Post readers are not necessarily Washingtonpost.com readers.
While the way we access news is still very much in flux, an important pattern seems to be emerging. Whereas once readers would rely on one or two major news sources for their information, they’re now relying on a synthesis—they’re relying on aggregators, RSS, e-mail alerts, and Digg to inform them. No matter what the channel, one trait is consistent: readers are aggregating their own news, requiring news and information when, where, and how they want it. Readers, like Paul, are cobbling stories together in their heads out of many different fragments.
Figure 3: Patterns started to emerge with each person observed. News and information gathering happens throughout the day. This diagram does not include radio or television, reported by a number of people as being sources as well.
Due to these new patterns of online usage, site traffic to major news sources is dropping, and with it, revenue. The problem with the trends towards aggregation, from the perspective of the news organizations, is that people are now getting their news without visiting the organization’s websites. And if people don’t visit the sites, then they aren’t viewing advertisements. Simultaneously, newspapers are losing another major source of revenue: classifieds. “At one point at their peak, newspapers were generating more than 70% of their pre-tax profit from their classified advertising,” reports Lauren Rich Fine, Managing Director, Merrill Lynch, on a recent Frontline episode. “Today, a good portion of Help Wanted classified has gone online.” And “online” by and large does not mean going to the newspaper’s website. To add insult to injury, while traffic to the websites of news organizations is decreasing, craigslist is now pulling in 5 billion page visits per month.
The same challenges faced by newspapers are now beginning to impact broadcast news. People, especially young people, are beginning to turn away from their televisions as sources of news. “I don’t think we’ve seen the model for how broadcast journalism is going to end up on the Internet, but it has to go there. It has to,” Jeff Fager, executive producer of 60 Minutes, recently stated. “You don’t seen anyone between the ages of 20 and 30 getting their news from the evening news, you see them getting it online.” [5] But here too aggregators—in this case video sites such as YouTube—may pose a significant challenge to drawing site traffic. And while news outfits such as 60 Minutes are making headway in getting their message out through partnerships with companies like Yahoo!, some fundamental issues regarding revenue remain.
