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1 The Web Made Me Do It and Other Fables of the Internet Age and Journalism Steven S. Ross Editorsteve@gmail.com

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2 We will cover The interaction of the Internet with main- stream media MSM Economics Ethics Prospects for careers in journalism Discuss ALL MSM, but focus on newspapers There are no obvious replacements for newspapers ability to cover local issues in depth. Local issues are the MOST important for society. Well end with blogging

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3 I will try to prove these points: The Internet is not killing MSM. Bad MSM decisions are killing MSM. Some MSM (weekly newspapers, and yes, alternative press) are doing well. Journalism ethics traditions, which actually dont go back very far anyway, are under enormous pressure. Wall Street investors are not killing MSM either.

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4 Context Internet homes now 72% of all homes; two-thirds of that is broadband. 100 Mbps to homes by 2012. TV and Online are merging newspapers slow to jump in. Erosion of editorial quality almost everywhere. JonBenet, not Iraq!

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5 No question, online is gaining

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6 Metro focus waning

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7 Web use for news rising

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8 To belabor the point: At many old-media companies, though not all, 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 the fight for journalism in the public interest. If you argue about public trust today, you will be dismissed as an obstructionist and a romantic, the editor of one of the countrys major papers told us privately Pew, State of the Media, 2006.

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9 Class discussion Where do you get your news? What kinds of news do you care about? What is news anyway?

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10 Bias? Cable TV worse!

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11 Where MSM is now TV audiences for network TV news have been falling, both for broadcast and cable (as viewed on a TV). RADIO audiences are rising, but locally owned stations are rare. MAGAZINE readership rises and falls with the economy and amount of free time. Lately, it has been falling. WEEKLY NEWSPAPER circulation is rising. DAILY NEWSPAPER circulation is falling.

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12 Network TV: Revenue has fallen

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13 Network TV: Audiences down and trend predates the Web!!!

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14 Cable news (from Pew) The audience for cable news was still growing in 2005, but not by much and not across the board. One channel, Fox News, continued to drive the growth, while its principal rivals, MSNBC and CNN, continued to suffer RATINGS declines. CNN still leads in the number of different people who watch it over the course of the month (CUME), allowing it to maintain its claim to be a rival to Fox News. CNNs Headline News emerged as a new contender in the cable news landscape. It managed to surpass MSNBC to become the third most watched channel in 2005. Online audiences are higher, and CNN leads

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15 Cable TV news ratings

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16 CUME total viewers/month

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17 Spending on newsgathering has been rising, except at MSNBC

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18 Class discussion Whats going on here? How do you think C-SPAN is doing? Daily Show? Colbert Report?

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19 Radio more funds, less staff

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20 Radio recent revenue weakness

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21 Talk-radio audiences are aging

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22 Newsmagazine topics

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23 Newsmagazine circulation

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24 Daily newspapers in 2005 Lost 600 employees, on base of about 50,000 (ASNE) A few were hiring Circulation down about 3% (ABC) Ad revenue down 1-2% (Pew; hard to calculate); on-line revenue grew 30% from small base (will take 10 years to make up) Move to sell out to local owners Share prices cratered, especially at giants (NYT, Tribune), but this was not uniform.

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25 Stock prices: Four major chains, 1/1/2000 - 1

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26 Weekly newspapers doing well

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27 A Little History Internet was officially opened to commercial (versus educational) use in October 1992. Senators Al Gore and Orin Hatch played big roles in passing the legislation. First graphical Web browser, Mosaic 0.9, was freely distributed by the University of Illinois in early 1993. First journalism new media courses were being taught by that summer.

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28 I was particularly optimistic about newspapers prospects Less than a third (and usually less than 20%) of newspaper budgets is spent on editorial content. Readers might pay $200 for daily newspaper subscription, but it costs $600-$1000 to print & deliver the paper! Advertising pays for that. Web offers many new storytelling tools video, audio, interactivity, vastly more room to deliver news. Cutting circulation costs would leave more money for newsgathering and storytelling. Advertising would be more immediate, more useful to readers and advertisers.

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29 What happened: Newspapers did not join the rush to the Internet. Ran Websites as separate businesses. Generally refused to hire high-priced talent. Generally refused to spend on R&D. But they overpaid for media expansion!

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30 Half-hearted exceptions Knight Ridder explored news slate idea and (earlier) an on-line service with AT&T called Viewtron, but did not cash in on its R&D lead it was overwhelmed by Web-only media. McClatchy developed good Web operation early, and bought Raleigh News & Observer. Gannett recognized that its papers generally small and ringing metro areas could grab ad revenue from metros. Turned USA Today into major Web portal. A.H. Belo hired Chris Feola in 1998, started big Web development program.

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31 While back at the Web Portals Interactive ads Entirely new ways to self-publish IPTV YouTube Per-Inquiry ad payments On-line auctions Blogs

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32 A word about classified ads Straight-line decline in ad lineage has been constant since late 1980s before Web existed Due to rise in ad rates. Google, eBay, Craigs List do NOT take ad revenue from newspapers. These are NEW sources of ad revenue; more businesses can advertise!

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33 Local ads in general Local large retailers disappearing Metro newspapers ignore new local businesses

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34 Rush to the bottom (Pew, 2006)

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35 Rush to the Bottom, II

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36 Rush to the bottom, III

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37 Race to the bottom IV

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38 Race to the bottom V

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39 Ethics issues Is it the Web that forces bad ethical choices? My annual survey on media and cyberspace

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40 Methodology 11 th Annual Survey of Media; fielded between April 28 and May 11, 2005 among journalists and editors registered with Bacons Media Map. Total respondents: 1,202 Print 72% Broadcast 13% Online 8% Wire Service 5% Other 1% Media Type North America 87% EMEA 9% APAC 1% South America