The state of the US news media improved in 2010, at least in comparison with a dismal 2009. Newspapers were the only major media sector to see continued ad revenue declines, down 6.4%. (After the report was published, the Newspaper Association of America released its final tally and put the drop at 6.3%.) But as online news consumption continues to grow — it surpassed print newspapers in ad revenue and audience for the first time in 2010 — a more fundamental challenge to journalism also became clearer. The news industry in the digital realm is no longer in control of its own future, according to the State of the News Media report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Online, news organizations increasingly depend on independent networks to sell their ads, on aggregators and social networks to deliver a substantial portion of their audience, and now, as news consumption becomes more mobile, on device makers (such as Apple) and software developers (Google) to distribute their content. And the new players take a share of the revenue and in many cases, also control the audience data.

"In a world where consumers decide what news they want and how they want to get it, the future belongs to those who understand the audience best, and who can leverage that knowledge with advertisers," said PEJ Director Tom Rosenstiel. "Increasingly that knowledge exists outside of news companies."

These are some of the conclusions in the eighth annual State of the News Media report, which takes a comprehensive look at the health and status of the American news media. This year’s study includes detailed looks at the eight major sectors of media. The special reports this year include a survey about the role of mobile technology in news consumption and the willingness of people to pay for their local newspaper online, a look at emerging economic models in community news and astudy of how the US newspaper business is faring compared with other nations.

The Who Owns the News Media database allows users to compare companies by various indicators, explore each media sector and read profiles of individual companies.  And in the Year in the News Interactive, users can explore PEJ’s comprehensive content analysis of media performance based on 52,613 stories from 2010.

Among the study’s key findings:

• Mobile has already become an important factor in news. Nearly half of all Americans (47%) now get some form of local news on a mobile device, according to a new survey in this year’s report, produced by PEJ with Pew Internet and American Life Project in partnership with the Knight Foundation. As of January 2011, 7% of Americans reported owning some kind of electronic tablet, nearly double the number four months earlier. But the movement to mobile doesn’t guarantee a revenue source. To date, even among early adaptors, only 10% of those who have downloaded local news apps paid for them.

• Online outpaces newspapers. Fully 46% of people now say they get news online at least three times a week, surpassing newspapers (40%) for the first time. Only local TV news is a more popular platform in America now (50%).  In another milestone, more money was spent on online advertising than on newspaper advertising in 2010: Online advertising overall grew 13.9% to $25.8 billion in 2010, according to data from eMarketer. While eMarketer does not offer a print ad revenue figure, we estimate the newspaper took in $22.8 billion in print ad revenue in 2010. (We estimate online ad revenue at newspapers to be about $3 billion.)

Pages: 1 · 2

More Articles

• Antony Blinken, Secretary of State: Building A More Resilient Information Environment
• New York's Jewish Museum: Photography and the American Magazine; When Avant-garde Techniques in Photography and Design Reached the United States via European Emigrés
• Even Though the Room Is Full, They Are “The Only One in the Room”; Eight Women Across 3 Centuries in Smithsonian Exhibit
• Pew Research Center: Stats Informed, Inspired and Challenged Us to Take On Some of Today's Most Pressing Issues
• What Research Says About How Bad Information Spreads Online
• A UC Berkeley PhD Candidate in Computer Science Creates a Step toward Fighting Human Trafficking: Sex Ads are Linked to Bitcoin Data
• Technology Assessment: Internet of Things, Status and Implications of an Increasingly Connected World
• How Do We Protect Private Information? Consumer Privacy Framework Needs to Reflect Changes in Technology & the Marketplace
• Stopping Fake Online Reviews in New York: "Astroturfing Is 21st Century’s False Advertising"
• Body Dissatisfaction: Has the Study of Body Image Overlooked “old talk”?