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Benton media news digest – May 2007 US BROADBAND MARKET ON THE DECLINE
[SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: Richard Martin]
The United States is falling further behind other
developed countries in broadband network
deployment. According to statistics released in
April by the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, the United States
ranked 15th among the OECD's 30 member countries
in broadband deployment at the end of
2006. That's three spots below the United
States' place on the list a year earlier, and
signs point to a continuing decline: The country
ranks 20th in the growth rate of broadband
penetration. So dismal is the progress that the
Federal Communications Commission has launched an
inquiry into the state of the U.S. broadband
market, focusing on the question of "net
neutrality" -- whether big carriers and service
providers are prioritizing voice and data traffic
for some customers at the expense of others.
Against this backdrop, expectations for wireless
broadband are high. Wireless broadband is seen as
a "third pipe" -- in addition to DSL and cable TV
-- into homes and businesses, as a way to spark
competition between incumbents and new entrants
that leads to new services, and as a way get the
United States on par with other countries in overall broadband availability. NEWSPAPER ONLINE AD GROWTH SLOWS -- AS PRINT REVENUE KEEPS SKIDDING
[SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Jennifer Saba]
Newspaper online advertising revenue growth is
starting to slow, according to the most recent
data from the Newspaper Association of America.
In Q1, advertising spending for newspaper Web
sites increased 22.3% to $750 million compared to
the same period last year. In the first quarter
of 2006, newspaper online ad revenue advanced
34.9% to $613 million. However, online
advertising revenue makes up more of total ad
revenue in Q1 versus the same period a year ago.
In Q1 of this year, online advertising
expenditures represent 7.1% of total ad revenue
versus 5.5% for Q1 2006. Newspaper print
advertising revenue fell sharply in Q1, down 6.4%
to $9.8 billion. The growth realized with online
advertising revenue did not push up total ad
spending. Combined, print and online advertising
revenue declined 4.8% to $10.6 billion in Q1. EXICO'S JOURNALISTS FEEL HEAVY HAND OF VIOLENCE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Manuel Roig-Franzia]
Mexico is now the second deadliest country in the
world for journalists after Iraq. More than 30
journalists have been killed in the past six
years in Mexico. As more reporters die,
journalism itself is suffering. A newspaper in
Sonora said last week that it was temporarily
shutting down because of attacks and threats by
criminal gangs. Top editors at the two largest
newspapers in Monterrey, Milenio and El Norte,
said in interviews that they no longer ask crime
reporters to dig deeply on their stories. At risk
is the vibrancy of the free press in Mexico's
still developing democracy. President Felipe
Calderón has called the intimidation of
journalists "an unacceptable situation," promised
to protect journalists and discussed possible
legislation to achieve that goal. But reporters
keep dying and news media offices keep getting attacked. WAR FEARS TURN DIGITAL AFTER DATA SIEGE IN ESTONIA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Mark Landler & John Markoff]
Estonia may be seeing the first war in
cyberspace. A month long campaign has forced
Estonian authorities to defend their Baltic
nation from a data flood that they say was set
off by orders from Russia or ethnic Russian
sources in retaliation for the removal of the
statue. The Russian government has denied any
involvement in the attacks, which came close to
shutting down the country’s digital
infrastructure, clogging the Web sites of the
president, the prime minister, Parliament and
other government agencies, staggering Estonia’s
biggest bank and overwhelming the sites of
several daily newspapers. “It turned out to be a
national security situation,” Estonia’s defense
minister, Jaak Aaviksoo, said in an interview.
“It can effectively be compared to when your
ports are shut to the sea.” Computer security
experts from NATO, the European Union, the United
States and Israel have since converged on Tallinn
to offer help and to learn what they can about cyberwar in the digital age. PRIVATE EQUITY: IS DEAL FRENZY NEARING END?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Henny Sender henny.sender@wsj.com]
It would be a fool's game to predict the end of
the private-equity buying frenzy, but certainly
some signals are there. Over much of the past two
years, the prevailing private-equity mantra has
been to buy as many companies as possible and
then sell as much debt as possible to help pay
for them. Now, the biggest private-equity firms
are beginning to diverge in their views. Caution
on the part of even some of the players could be
bearish for stocks, coming at a time when one of
the biggest supports for the stock market is the
assumption that private equity will buy bad
companies because they are inexpensive and good
companies because they are good. Should
private-equity firms pull back, that support
could vanish. Some analysts say that without a
widespread belief in the appetite of LBO firms
for publicly traded companies, stock prices would be far lower. MORE BANDWIDTH THAN YOU CAN USE?
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Arik Hesseldahl]
From the moment the first phone-line modems
squawked to life, connecting consumers to early
Internet service providers two decades ago, there
has been a nearly universal quest for more
plentiful and speedier data pipes into the home.
Yet even now that those pipes are arriving, the
race to provide even bigger ones is intensifying
among telecom and cable TV companies, as well as
wireless network operators. But once you have
100Mbps or more available at home, what the heck
are you going to do with all that bandwidth? For
the average consumer, 6Mbps should more than
suffice for today's typical needs, whether it's
downloading music, watching the occasional video,
or even running a home network that lets two or
three computers do the same all at once. Does
anyone really care whether that song download
from iTunes (AAPL) takes 10 seconds or 2 seconds? NICHE GROUPS USE WEB TO GAIN EAR OF '08 CONTENDERS
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Ariel Sabar]
The Internet-driven political activism that
helped bankroll former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's
insurgent 2004 bid for the Democratic
presidential nomination is back, in ways that are
starting to transcend fundraising. Groups of
voters tethered by little more than a website are
drawing campaigns' attention for their numbers
and political savvy, not just their dollars. "The
size of an organization's e-mail list will get
more attention now than it would have two or four
years ago," says Andrew Rasiej, cofounder of
TechPresident.com, a website tracking the
intersection of presidential campaigns and the
Web. A seat at a big-ticket fundraiser or the
ability to raise large sums of campaign cash is
under no threat of extinction as the quickest
route to face time with a major presidential
candidate. But voters uniting under the banner of
a website are getting a level of notice – even if
still relatively brief – unseen in earlier election cycles. BRING ON THE EXAFLOOD
[SOURCE: Washington Post 5/24, AUTHOR: Bruce Mehlman and Larry Irving]
[Commentary] Driven by a critical mass of fast connections and the
arrival of a "killer application" -- video -- broadband has arrived.
Broadband, or high-speed Internet connectivity, is the transformative
technology of our generation. Access to and effective use of
broadband affects the ability of individuals, industries and nations
to grow, compete and succeed. If we can match the explosion in
digital content with the smarter and more robust networks needed to
get information to homes, businesses and schools, America stands a
good chance of regaining its global leadership in broadband access,
innovation and adoption. Yet as new content proliferates, today's
high-speed connection could be tomorrow's traffic jam. The strain on
broadband capabilities and the looming data deluge is often called
the Internet exaflood. "Exaflood" stems from the term exabyte, or
1.074 billion gigabytes. Two exabytes equal the total volume of
information generated in 1999. The Internet currently handles one
exabyte of data every hour. This mushrooming amalgamation of data is
pushing the Internet to its limits. Preparing for the exaflood is
critical to the nation's success. The Internet infrastructure must be
robust enough to handle all of the new data; this is often a
challenge because the Internet is really thousands of privately
owned, individual networks stitched together. It requires constant
investment so that it will continue to grow and run smoothly. All
sides agree that we need ongoing investment in content, massive
upgrades of infrastructure and relentless innovation to handle the
phenomenal growth in data traffic. We need advancements in how we
build and operate networks, including new file compression
technologies, upgraded traffic management software, better spam and
virus filters, and new delivery platforms. And we need substantial
investments in short-haul bandwidth through fiber to homes, broadband
over power lines, satellites and fourth-generation wireless networks.
The formula for encouraging such extraordinary investments is clear:
minimize tax and regulatory constraints and maximize competition. E-MAIL REPLY TO ALL: 'LEAVE ME ALONE'
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Mike Musgrove]
The supposed convenience of electronic mail, like so many other
innovations of technology, has become too much for some people.
Swamped by an unmanageable number of messages -- the volume of e-mail
traffic has nearly doubled in the past two years, according to
research firm DYS Analytics -- and plagued by annoying spam and
viruses, some users are saying "Enough!" Those declaring bankruptcy
are swearing off e-mail entirely or, more commonly, deleting all old
messages and starting fresh. E-mail overload gives many workers the
sense that their work is never done, said senior analyst David
Ferris, whose firm, Ferris Research, said there were 6 trillion
business e-mails sent in 2006. "A lot of people like the feeling that
they have everything done at the end of the day," he said. "They
can't have it anymore." So some say they're moving back to the
telephone as their preferred means of communication. EU BACKS RISE IN ADVERTISING ON BROADCAST TV
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Anne Jolis anne.jolis@dowjones.com]
The European Union's national governments approved sweeping changes
to the bloc's television-broadcasting rules, extending the amount of
advertising allowed and allowing product placement in TV shows. Until
now, such product placement has been illegal in many EU countries,
and that angered producers who saw their U.S. counterparts cash in on
the practice. The new regulations also help broadcasters by allowing
them to show advertisements more frequently. The legislation
sidesteps the issue of how much content produced in the EU is
required on TV. EU film and TV companies have lobbied for tough
limits on Hollywood imports, but yesterday's overhaul leaves
unchanged a 1989 mandate encouraging local-language production.
Another area left largely unregulated is the Internet. Web sites,
such as Google Inc.'s YouTube, will remain exempt from EU rules,
though video-on-demand services will now come under the same
regulations as regular television. The omission of Internet
regulation is a loss for television broadcasters, who lobbied hard to
include the emerging Internet-based audiovisual industry in the new
rules. They said that they face increased competition from services
such as YouTube and mobile-multimedia companies and that exempting
these players from regulation would put broadcasters at a competitive
disadvantage. E-MAIL TO BYPASS PHONE CHARGES
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Eric Auchard]
Jangl Inc., one of a new class of Web-telephone
calling companies, is introducing a way to call
over the Internet that bypasses traditional phone
networks and uses e-mail to provide privacy from
unknown callers. The service, available on
Wednesday, allows users to place calls as well as
to send text messages or send or receive
voicemail -- all via the Internet, rather than
voice networks. It helps consumers place
long-distance calls, globally, to anyone with an
e-mail address and a phone, for about the cost of a dime. A FUTURE FOR NEWSPAPERS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Andy Kessler]
[Commentary] Media, after all, is about owning a
pipe -- some conduit between the creation of news
or entertainment and the eyeballs that consume
it. Media companies sell the owners of those
eyeballs lots of things we weren't even sure we
needed. The higher the ad rates, the better the
business. The pipe reaches the consumer directly,
keeping competition at bay. The tighter the pipe,
the less the competition. For broadcasters, the
pipe is spectrum given or bought from the Federal
Communications Commission under the guise that
spectrum is scarce. For cable operators, it is
often the sole cable franchise in a town. For
phone companies, it's those regulated copper
wires, some of which are so old they have
Alexander Graham Bell's teeth marks in the
insulation. And newspapers? Reputation, quality
news gathering, trust and credibility maintain
the franchise. But they aren't in the printing
business, they're in the ad business. KILLING THE RUSSIAN MEDIA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Journalists from around the world
who will gather in Moscow next week are poised to
stand up for their colleagues in a country where
journalism and journalists are increasingly under
attack. The 1,000 media representatives plan to
establish a commission to finally investigate the
growing number of unsolved murders of journalists
in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. The few remaining
critics increasingly write or speak out at their
peril, as new laws tighten the government’s grip.
Most recently, the definition of extremism has
been expanded to include media criticism of state
officials. That can mean jail time for the
reporter and the shutting down of the news
outlet. In the meantime, polls show President
Putin’s popularity has soared. No wonder. Fewer
and fewer Russians can see or hear from anyone
who opposes him, his policies or his government. WHAT THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA CAN LEARN FROM JOHN STEWART
[SOURCE: American Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Rachel Smolkin ]
Whether lampooning President Bush's disastrous
Iraq policies or mocking "real" reporters for
their credulity, Stewart and his team often seem
to steer closer to the truth than traditional
journalists. The "Daily Show" satirizes spin,
punctures pretense and belittles bombast. When a
video clip reveals a politician's backpedaling,
verbal contortions or mindless prattle, Stewart
can state the obvious -- ridiculing such blather
as it deserves to be ridiculed -- or remain
silent but speak volumes merely by arching an eyebrow. E-MAIL BRINGS BOOKS IN SMALL DOSES FOR COMMUTERS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Claudia Parsons]
A new Web site is offering to send classic books
in bite-size installments to your handheld device
or e-mail every morning before you go to work, or
whenever you want, for free. The e-mails from
www.dailylit.com are designed to be read in under
five minutes. Jules Verne's "Around the World in
80 Days" comes in 82 parts while Leo Tolstoy's
"Anna Karenina" could take nearly two years of
working days to read at 430 parts. 75% OF HOUSEHOLDS IN PAKISTAN TO BE COVERED WITH HIGH SPEED INTERNET BY 2015
[SOURCE: Pakistan News]
Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz says that his country is moving
forward with great speed to bridge the digital divide by improving
the access of information and communication technology to low-income
groups and a target of 1.6 million broadband connections has been set
for the next three years and infrastructure would be developed to
cover 75% of house-holds in the country with high speed Internet by
2015. "Bridging the digital divide is the need of the hour.
Information and communication technology has revolutionized modern
life in many ways and one of the major achievements of our government
is the reform and resultant growth of information and communication
technology sector. We are moving forward with great speed to bridge
the digital divide in the country by improving the access of
information and communication technology to low-income groups." MEDIA'S HAND IN THE IRAQ WAR
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Dante Chinni]
Bill Roggio, a blogger who covers US military campaigns, thinks the
coverage in Iraq lacks context, and reporters as a whole display a
lack of knowledge of counterinsurgency and the role the media plays
in an insurgency's information campaign. WHAT'S HOT? GOOGLE OFFERS DAILY UPDATES ON TRENDS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Eric Auchard]
The art of trend-spotting is set to take a more scientific turn as
Google Inc., the world's top Web search company, on Tuesday unveils a
service to track the fastest-rising search queries. Google Hot Trends
combines elements of Zeitgeist and Trends -- two existing Google
products that give a glimpse into Web search habits, but only in
retrospect based on weeks-old data. Hot Trends, a list of the current
top-100 fastest-rising search trends, will be refreshed several times
daily, using data from millions of Google Web searches conducted up
to an hour before each update, the company said. WITH BIG BUY, MICROSOFT JOINS ONLINE AD FLURRY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal 5/19, AUTHOR: Robert
A. Guth rob.guth@wsj.com, Kevin J. Delaney, Suzanne Vranica, Emily Steel]
Microsoft's $6 billion deal to buy an online-ad
specialist called aQuantive Inc. puts into high
gear a race between Madison Avenue and a new
guard of technology businesses that are trying to
dominate the unbridled market in brokering
Internet advertisements. The deal -- the largest
in Microsoft's history -- follows recent
acquisitions of Web-ad companies by Google Inc.,
Yahoo Inc. and traditional advertising agencies.
The emerging consensus: The online-ad market is
maturing around an oligopoly of huge companies
that sell and place the ads users see online.
Placing those ads is increasingly seen as the
business model that will fund almost everything
on the Internet -- from search portals, news
sites and video downloads to Web-based software
services such as word processing. The deals also
highlight the deepening conviction that the
automated-advertising approach championed by
Google will draw more ad dollars from traditional
media and play a larger role in how TV, radio and
print ads are sold. Hundreds of thousands of
advertisers buy online ads using the Web sites of
Google and its competitors, providing some
details about what they're willing to pay and
where they want their ads shown. The automated
systems act as brokers by finding places for the ads on Web sites. POPE CONDEMNS SEX, VIOLENCE IN MEDIA
[SOURCE: Reuters]
Pope Benedict on Sunday criticized media that
transmitted anti-social and violent programs as
well as images that "vulgarize human sexuality."
The Pope made his comments in a message for the
Roman Catholic Church's World Day of
Communications, whose theme this year is
"Children and the Media: A Challenge for
Education." The Pontiff further called on the
heads of the media industry to "promote human
dignity, marriage and the family." The Pope's
comments followed a written message for the World
Day of Communications released earlier this year
which criticized animated films and video games,
among other products, that exalt violence and trivialize sexuality. ARTISTS AND LABELS SEEK ROYALTIES FROM RADIO
THE SOUND OF COPY RESTRICTIONS CRASHING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Rob Pegoraro]
The idea of ditching "digital rights management"
for music downloads is rapidly changing from
dream to business reality -- and faster than
anybody might have hoped. Amazon said yesterday
that it would open an online store that stocks
only MP3 music files without copying
restrictions. That would be huge news, except
that Amazon is only catching up with Apple, which
announced in early April that it would offer
DRM-free downloads by the end of this month. Both
stores have the public backing of EMI, one of the
four big record labels, which yesterday also said
it would sell unrestricted music downloads at
some European sites. This should delight
customers, who will no longer have to worry about
being able to listen to their song files on their
next music player or their computer. But it must
unsettle many music industry executives. QUAL OPPORTUNITY SPEEDWAY
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: ]
Speedy Internet connections once were considered
perks for the privileged. Robust Net access was
enjoyed by 30% of U.S. households as late as
2005, mostly in white homes. Meanwhile, so-called
broadband adoption by blacks was a mere 14%,
according to data from the Pew Internet &
American Life Project. The resulting "digital
divide" between white and black was considered a
lasting socioeconomic problem--like the
protracted disparity between black and white
unemployment. But in the past two years, African
Americans have been devouring broadband
technology--and the digital divide has shrunk
significantly, at least for this group. The share
of black households with a cable modem, DSL, or
satellite Internet connection climbed to 40% this
year, Pew says. That's almost twice as fast as
the growth of broadband penetration for the
general population, which grew to 47%. The income
gap has narrowed, too, but not as much:
Households making less than $30,000 a year
doubled their broadband participation, to 30%.
That still pales next to 76% for households that
have incomes of at least $75,000. Some of the
closing of the racial divide can be traced to
falling prices and rising availability of new
technology. But that masks a deeper shift in the
relationship of blacks to the Web. The Net today
offers an abundance of entertainment
riches--digital music, pictures, movies, video
chat, games--that can be tailored to individual
taste, not to mention services such as job
networks and training. Gaining access to that
killer content without broadband speeds would be
like sucking hot fudge through a straw. INTERNET'S VALUE TIED TO KEEPING IT NEUTRAL
[SOURCE: Portland Press Herald, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Successful economic eras can usually
be traced back to a technology breakthrough and
the public policy decisions made to support it.
In the years leading up to and during the early
21st century, the Internet has emerged as a
technological development on par with the
creation of the railroad or telephone. And like
those inventions, the impact of the Internet on
our economy -- and, in this case, on our ability
to exercise our free-speech rights -- has been
aided by sensible public policy choices. Setting
the Internet up as a resource available to all on
the same, low-cost terms has made it an
unprecedented innovation tool. It has also
allowed the Internet to become the place where
just about anybody can start a business or make
their voice and views available to the world.
Now, however, there are forces working to undo
the sensible and essential rules that govern the
use of the Internet. Some -- though not all --
Internet service providers want the ability to
create two standards for Internet transmission.
Even if it's true that getting rid of net
neutrality would bring consumers cheaper Internet
service, the cost to the overall economy in lost
innovation would hardly make the change
worthwhile. Besides, the surest way to give
consumers the best price is to make it possible
for multiple players to package and offer local
and national television content, high-speed
Internet, phone and cell-phone services. As we
move in that direction, we'll also need a system
for raising money to provide incentives to
providers to serve rural areas. All that can be
accomplished without undermining the principle
that the Internet should serve all comers on an equal basis. LAPTOPS IN THE CLASSROOM: MEND IT, DON'T END IT
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Justin Reich]
[Commentary] More and more professors are banning
laptops from their classrooms. They argue that
the computers turn students into stenographers
instead of critical thinkers, or, more often,
distract them with online shopping or e-mail.
These are the same laptops, mind you, that many
schools required students to buy in the first
place, and they connect wirelessly to a network
that universities have spent millions to install.
Technology fees and tuition hikes are hard to
swallow for students taking notes with a pencil.
After a decade of infusing technology into
university facilities with gusto, the bandwagon
is crashing into the classroom door. Provosts and
presidents can rewire facilities and require
laptop purchases, but these innovations are for
naught if professors use the same old lecture
notes. Computers can transform the way students
learn only if instructors change the way they teach. STUDY SEES NO FUTURE IN SELLING VIDEO DOWNLOADS
[SOURCE: Reuters ]
Sites that sell movies and TV shows such as
Apple's iTunes will likely peak this year and
then lose popularity as more content becomes
available on free outlets supported by ads,
according to a new study. Sales of movies and
television shows are expected to almost triple to
$279 million in 2007 from an estimated $98
million last year. But unless the average
consumer begins paying for their online video en
masse, growth in sales will likely peter out next
year, according to Forrester Research. Currently,
only about 9 percent of Net-using adults have
paid to download a program or a movie, the study
said. These people spent an average of $14 each
to buy videos last year and will likely spend more this year. FREE-INTERNET PLAN GETS SF CONTROLLER'S OFFICE OK
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Ryan Kim]
The San Francisco controller's office issued a
favorable review Friday on a proposal by
EarthLink and Google to provide the city with
free wireless Internet access. The report
estimates residents could save $9 million to $18
million in Internet bills annually by having the
option of choosing the EarthLink service, which
will offer free access as well as a paid service
that is cheaper than other broadband options like
DSL and cable. The report said the service will
help the city bridge the digital divide,
providing many residents with Internet service
for the first time. It also noted it would be a
boon to EarthLink, giving it a foothold in the San Francisco broadband market. NETWORKS NEED A NEW TUNE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] With viewer patterns changing,
programmers can be forgiven for feeling that they
have to retrain themselves on the fly. But
despite all the inducements for viewers to create
their own television experience, tens of millions
of viewers -- most of us, in fact -- watch
programs at the time they air, just the way we
always have. Not that there's anything wrong with
that. Indeed, it's the mass audience that made
television so powerful in the first place.
Eventually, as television blends with the
Internet, words like “network” and “TV schedules”
will be antiquated concepts. Watching television
on your laptop won't seem exotic at all. The
seemingly insatiable appetite for content is
encouraging and will eventually provide new
revenue streams. As the networks plan for the
fall season, they are going to have to fortify
broadcast enterprises that still attract billions
of ad dollars, all the while figuring out how to
make them relevant in a world where the viewer,
not the network, determines the day and date. CABLE'S 'MILLION DOLLAR EYEBALLS' STUDY
[SOURCE: AdAge 5/9, AUTHOR: Andrew Hampp]
The cable networks have coined all types of
phrases to describe their coveted, upscale
viewers -- Discovery's "slambrosia" and Bravo's
"affluencers" are two of the more colorful
examples -- but a recent survey from Monroe
Mendelsohn Research is helping those networks put
their viewers where their mouths are. The
"Million Dollar Eyeballs" study, conducted
between June and September 2006, tabulated how
many hours viewers in households above and below
the $1 million mark in total income and
investments watched cable TV over a seven-day
period. Though the usual suspects cropped up (Fox
News ranks No. 1 for the upscale set with 7.9
hours, Discovery's "slambrosia" watched 3.8 hours
to rank sixth in the same category), there were a
few surprises. CNBC, the No. 2 network above $1
million, had the biggest disparity between its
two categories, with 7.3 hours watched in upscale
households and 2.6 hours on the other end of the
income spectrum. Fox News, while top-ranked among
the affluent, dipped to No. 6 in the "under
million" category, with ESPN taking top honors among that segment. LOCAL NEWS REPORTING OUTSOURCED TO INDIA
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Alex Pham]
When is local journalism not really local? When
it's about Pasadena and written by someone in
India. James Macpherson, editor and publisher of
the Pasadena Now website, hired two reporters
last weekend to cover the Pasadena City Council.
One lives in Mumbai and will be paid $12,000 a
year. The other will work in Bangalore for
$7,200. The council broadcasts its meetings on
the Web. From nearly 9,000 miles away, the
outsourced journalists plan to watch, then write
their stories while their boss sleeps — India is
12.5 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time. "A lot
of the routine stuff we do can be done by really
talented people in another time zone at much
lower wages," said Macpherson, 51, who used to
run a clothing business with manufacturing help
from Vietnam and India. So, on the Indian version
of Craigslist, he posted an ad that said in part,
"We do not believe that geographic distance
between California and India will present
unsurmountable problems, and that working
together with you will result in your development
of a keen working knowledge of this city's
affairs." Dozens replied. One of the two chosen
had attended the UC Berkeley Graduate School of
Journalism. Rob Gunnison, the director of school
affairs there, is dismayed. "It just seems so
fundamental to journalism to be there," Gunnison
said. "I still can't quite believe it's not a hoax." HOLLYWOOD SET TO FILTER ON-SCREEN SMOKING
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jim Puzzanghera]
Under a policy announced Thursday, the Motion
Picture Assn. of America said its movie raters
would take into account "depictions that
glamorize smoking or movies that feature
pervasive smoking outside of a historic or other
mitigating context." That makes smoking a major
factor to be considered alongside violence,
profanity, nudity and drug use by the MPAA's
rating board, the Classification and Rating
Administration, when deciding the warning parents
will get. For filmmakers and studios, the new
policy complicates the creative process because a
stricter rating can hurt ticket sales. The change
in policy is a partial victory for anti-smoking
advocates and researchers, who have pressured the
MPAA for years to take a tougher stance on the
issue. The trade group, however, resisted calls
for an even more radical proposal to give films
with smoking a mandatory R rating, meaning
children under 17 would not be allowed to see
them without a parent or guardian. WHERE'S THE PAPER?
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Robert W. McChesney]
[Commentary] The legendary journalist Ben
Badgikian has argued for 25 years that the
smartest newspaper publishers would upgrade their
commitment to local journalism, downgrade the
silly stuff the marketing people promoted, and
suffer smaller profits in the near-term to
guarantee a growing market down the road. Recent
research at the University of Missouri provides
supporting evidence for this analysis. Instead,
many papers go the opposite route -- gut serious
journalism because that costs money (and can
antagonize powerful people in their community)
and their marketing people tell them the
desirable youth demographics (and major
advertisers) want sports and entertainment and
business and lifestyle news, which is far less
expensive to produce. In the near term that
equals higher profits. Younger readers over time
find they can get this type of information faster
and better on line and stop reading daily
newspapers. By this time they have less of an
understanding of what good local journalism is
because they have not been exposed to it. So
newspapers find themselves painted into a corner,
producing less of the product that makes them
distinct and not having nurtured a market for
quality local news. But it will be a huge loss if
American cities in the digital era do not have
multiple newsrooms of well paid journalists
competing to cover their communities. It is
imperative that we develop policies to make
certain we end up there, regardless of what
happens to newspapers per se. In the near-term,
policies to preserve and promote local (and
possibly worker or community) ownership of daily
newspapers would be a good start, and then these
institutions could be our bridge to the paperless
digital newsroom of the future. If we allow our
newspapers to continue their downward spiral, and
have nothing there to replace them, it will be a tragedy of epic proportions. WHERE HAVE THE TV VIEWERS GONE?
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: David Bauder]
ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox have 2.5 million less
people watching this Spring then the same time
last year. Everyone has a theory to explain the
plummeting ratings: early Daylight Savings Time,
more reruns, bad shows, more shows being recorded
or downloaded or streamed. Scariest of all for
the networks, however, is the idea that many
people are now making their own television
schedules. The industry isn't fully equipped to
keep track of them, and as a result the networks
are scrambling to hold on to the nearly $8.8
billion they collected during last spring's
ad-buying season. The viewer plunge couldn't have
come at a worse time for the networks — next week
they will showcase their fall schedules to
advertisers in the annual "up front"
presentations. The networks argue that viewership
is changing, not necessarily declining. Some
advertisers respond that they are no longer
willing to pay full price up front to reach viewers that may not tune in later. M YSPACE TO HOST ONLINE TOWN HALL FOR USERS TO QUESTION CANDIDATES
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Jill Lawrence]
A dozen presidential candidates will take part in
interactive online town halls with members of the
massive social network MySpace, the latest sign
of the Internet's growing importance in U.S.
political campaigns. MySpace.com, visited by 65
million Americans a month, plans to start the
hour-long sessions with individual candidates
after Labor Day. They will be physically present
at a college campus along with about 200 MySpace
members; other members can watch a webcast and submit questions. AN YOU TEACH AN OLD MEDIA NEW TRICKS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times 5/8, AUTHOR: Glenn
Harlan Reynolds, University of Tennessee]
[Commentary] Quality matters, and today's news
media aren't delivering. There are a lot of
reasons, but the most important, I fear, is that
most of the people running newspapers and
television networks are, to put it kindly,
clueless. Hard-news reporting—actual facts, not
opinion—remains the "killer app" for Big Media.
But they're not making proper use of their
structural advantages there, and those advantages
are likely to weaken over time. Right now,
traditional media organizations are still in a
much better position overall to cover actual news
than citizen journalists. They've got the
infrastructure, the training, and the experience.
But those advantages are eroding daily as
technology shifts in favor of smaller operations,
and as citizen journalists gain experience and
audience. Will Big Media change in time? They
will if they're smart—which is to say, probably not. OLD MEDIA TURNS COMBATIVE AGAINST NEW MEDIA
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Kenneth Li]
Leading media executives took a combative tone
against Internet companies on Tuesday, suggesting
that Big Media increasingly considers new content
distributors like Google Inc. to be more foe than
friend. But top executives said talk of the
demise of traditional media in the digital age
was overblown. While new distribution
technologies like the Internet and mobile phones
are siphoning television audiences, media
companies argued that the Web also brings new revenue streams. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ESTHER DYSON
[SOURCE: Online Media Daily, AUTHOR: Laurie Petersen]
Esther Dyson, chairman of EDventure Holdings,
weighs in on the future of search, the wisdom--or
not--of Microsoft buying Yahoo, and the opportunities in emerging markets. NAA STUDY: NEWSPAPERS WEB USERS ABOVE AVERAGE IN MANY WAYS
[SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Jennifer Saba]
Thirty-seven percent of all active Internet users
visited newspaper web sites in the first quarter
of 2007, according to a study by the Newspaper
Association of America. The study found that
nearly 88% newspaper Web site visitors have made
a purchase online in the last six months,
compared with 79% of the overall Internet
audience. About 73% of newspaper Web site
visitors go online every day, compared with 57.8%
of the entire Internet population. The study also
found that online newspaper readers are more
likely to read blogs -- 28.4%, versus 16.7% of
the total online population. More than one in
five newspaper Web site visitors have read about
politics, compared with 10.8% of the overall
Internet population. Forty-two percent of those
who have visited newspapers online have viewed
streaming video on their computers in the last 30
days, compared with 27.4% of the overall Internet
population. Nearly 29% of newspaper Web site
visitors have sought out or posted a product
review, compared with 16% of the overall Web population. A MUSEUM FOR ARTIFACTS OF THE NEWS MEDIA'S HUNTERS AND GATHERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Katharine Seelye]
More than six years in the making and costing
$435 million, Newseum may be one of the world’s
most expensive museums now under construction. It
is certainly among the most prominent, perched on
the last buildable site on the presidential
inaugural parade route between the Capitol and
the White House. The Newseum will have 600
artifacts on display, one-tenth of its
collection. The Newseum’s goal is to present the
“first rough draft of history” in all its glory
and some of its shame, impressing upon visitors
the importance of the First Amendment’s
protections of a free press. Newseum's big
challenges will be to attract visitors at a time
when surveys show that public respect for the news media has been ebbing. WE'RE STUCK IN THE SLOW LANE OF THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] When it comes to reasonably priced,
high-speed Internet service, the United States is
an embarrassment. Despite years of promises from
politicians and technology titans, the U.S.
continues to lag far behind our global
competitors. Worse, much of U.S. "broadband"
service is only a smidgen faster than a dial-up
modem. Both government and the telecommunications
industry are to blame. The technology to deliver
truly high-speed Internet access is there,
especially for cable subscribers. Customers need
to demand better service from providers. The
government needs to step in, too. The U.S. needs
a national strategy to get affordable broadband
to every man, woman and child by the end of the
decade. The federal government's lack of
leadership in this area is a disgrace. Despite a
2004 promise by President Bush to deliver
"universal, affordable access to broadband
technology by the year 2007," his administration
has done nothing to advance that goal. DESPITE WARNINGS, MOST BABIES WATCH TV
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Julie Steenhuysen]
About 90 percent of U.S. children under age 2 and
as many as 40 percent of infants under three
months are regular watchers of television, DVDs
and videos, researchers said on Monday. This
despite the many e-mails, fliers and warning
labels sent to these kids by childrens'
advocates. About half of the shows watched were
in the educational category, with the remainder
split evenly among noneducational children's
content, baby DVDs/videos and adult TV. A second
study suggested excessive TV viewing can lead to
attention and learning problems down the road.
The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that
children in the United States watch about four
hours of television every day. They recommend
that children under age 2 should not watch any
and older children should watch no more than 2
hours a day of quality programming. But 29
percent of parents surveyed believe baby-oriented
TV and DVD programs offer educational benefits.
How could they get that idea? Could it have
anything to do with advertising? "Parents are
getting the message loud and clear from marketers
of TV and videos that this is good for their
kids. That it will help their brain development
... None of this stuff has ever been proven,"
said Frederick Zimmerman of the University of
Washington, whose research appears in the
Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. SURVEY SHATTERS TECHNOLOGY ASSUMPTIONS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Anick Jesdanun]
A broad survey about the technology people have,
how they use it, and what they think about it
shatters assumptions and reveals where companies
might be able to expand their audiences. The Pew
Internet and American Life Project found that
adult Americans are broadly divided into three
groups: 31 percent are elite technology users, 20
percent are moderate users and the remainder have
little or no usage of the Internet or cell
phones. But Americans are divided within each
group, according to a Pew analysis of 2006 data
released Sunday. The high-tech elites, for
instance, are almost evenly split into:
"Omnivores," who fully embrace technology and
express themselves creatively through blogs and
personal Web pages. "Connectors," who see the
Internet and cell phones as communications tools.
"Productivity enhancers," who consider technology
as largely ways to better keep up with their jobs
and daily lives. "Lackluster veterans," those who
use technology frequently but aren't thrilled by it. HOW TO SINK A NEWSPAPER
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Walter
Hussman, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette]
[Commentary] Are the newspaper industry's
problems self-inflicted? Take free news. News has
become ubiquitous, free, and as a result, a
commodity. Anytime you are trying to sell
something that becomes a commodity, you have lost
much of the value in providing that product or
service. Not many years ago if someone wanted to
find out what was in the newspaper they had to
buy one. But not anymore. Now you can just go to
the newspaper's Web site and get that same
information for free. The newspaper industry
wonders why it is losing young readers. Those
readers might be young, but many of them are
smart, not to mention computer-savvy. Why would
they buy a newspaper when they can get the same
information online for free? Exacerbating the
problem with free news was the decision by the
newspaper industry, which owns the Associated
Press, to sell AP copy to news aggregators like
Yahoo, Google and MSN. With local radio and
television stations also creating Web sites and
posting their news for free, newspapers soon
realized that much of the news on the broadcast
Web sites had been created by the local
newspaper. So, whereas before the newspapers were
selling print ads while radio and TV were selling
air time, now they were all selling the same
medium: their Web sites. Since newspapers share
their content with the Associated Press so other
members can use it, radio and TV members are
using much of that content to compete against the
newspapers that created it. It is time for
newspapers to reconsider the ultimate costs and consequences of free news. A BOSTON NEWSPAPER PRINTS WHAT THE LOCAL BLOGGERS WRITE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jerod Kummer]
While most newspapers are trying to stake bigger
claims online, one new publication is pulling
material off the Internet to be printed in ink.
John Wilpers, editor in chief of BostonNow, a
free weekday daily introduced last month, said he
wanted to fill the paper with items that local
bloggers submitted to the BostonNow Web site. RETAIL CDs GET PERSONAL
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune 5/3, AUTHOR: Eric Benderoff]
Executives from the world's leading record
companies and the owners of the nation's
struggling music sellers have been huddled in a
Chicago hotel since Sunday, trying to figure out
how to halt a slide in CD sales while providing
music fans with new reasons to shop at a store.
When the attendees of the National Association of
Recording Merchandisers leave town Thursday,
they'll have a little more knowledge on how to
adapt to an increasingly digital music market,
but also a sobering sense that things aren't
getting better soon. A report released Wednesday
from Ipsos Insight, a Chicago market research
firm, showed that while 51 percent of U.S.
consumers ages 12 and up bought a CD in the past
six months, that's down 15 percent from 2002.
Furthermore, a Sony executive said Wednesday that
a 6 percent increase in online music sales in the
first quarter hardly offset decreases in physical
CD shipments, which were down 20 percent. One new
tactic is selling digital singles: New machines,
available from at least five different companies
and now in operation in more than 150 record
stores, Starbucks, book stores and big-box
electronics stores across the country, allow
consumers to pick 15 or so singles from various
artists and burn them onto a CD. The cost of the
do-it-yourself CDs varies depending on the
retailer, but typically each song costs 99 cents
after a $3 fee to cover the costs of a jewel
case, customized labels and a CD. So burning one
song costs $3.99 but burning 10 would cost $12.90. DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT AND THE SECRET WAR AGAINST YOUR FAIR USE RIGHTS
[SOURCE: saschameinrath.com]
[Commentary] A massive secret war on consumers'
rights to make legal use of audio, video, print,
and other media is being waged. This battle,
under the ironically titled rubrics of “Digital
Rights Management” (DRM) is part of the ongoing
battle to more fully commoditize previously free
media use and exact additional control over
copyrighted material and extract additional
profits from media consumers. This article
documents some of the changes surrounding
copyright and focuses on the increasing use of
Digital Rights Management and decreasing freedom all of us face. ONES STUDIED AS ATTACK DETECTOR
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Mimi Hall]
The government is researching whether the best
defense against a chemical, biological or
radiological attack might one day be right in
everyone's hands — or on their ears. Homeland
Security officials are looking into outfitting
cellphones with detectors that would alert
emergency responders to radiological isotopes,
toxic chemicals and biological agents such as
anthrax. "If it's successful, it'll change the
way chemical, biological and radiation detection
is done," says Rolf Dietrich, deputy director of
the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects
Agency, which invests in high-tech solutions to
secure the nation against terrorist attacks.
"It's a really, really neat thing." MURDOCH'S EDITORS KNOW HIS VOICE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Martin
Peers martin.peers@wsj.com and Aaron O. Patrick aaron.patrick@wsj.com]
Some owners of newspapers seldom, if ever, speak
to their editors. Rupert Murdoch is not one of
them. To generations of newspaper editors, the
News Corp. chairman and chief executive's voice
is familiar: He telephones to pass on news tips
or story ideas, complain about the tone of the
paper's coverage, or just catch up on gossip. Mr.
Murdoch's hands-on style differs markedly from
the traditions of the publisher he now wants to
buy. The Bancroft family, the controlling
shareholder of Wall Street Journal parent Dow
Jones & Co., has long maintained a distance from
the company's operations. The family, which owns
24.7% of the equity but through supervoting stock
has voting control, has board representation but
no involvement with direct management of the
paper. While the editorial page has a
conservative political viewpoint, a strict
separation is enforced between the editorial page
and the newsroom, designed to ensure opinion and
news coverage don't mix. The Bancroft family is
steeped in that culture, and a sense of pride in
the company's long history and independence has
led them to endure an often-sluggish stock price
over the years. For that reason, how Mr. Murdoch
might change the culture of the Journal is likely
to be an issue as Dow Jones and the Bancrofts consider his bid. HY NEWSPAPERS ARE BUYOUT TARGETS
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Ron Scherer]
Even for America's newspaper families, the media
oligarchies that control many of the nation's
broadsheets, the economics of continuing to
publish a newspaper is challenging. Circulation
is hard to maintain when information is free on
the Internet. Meanwhile, there are fewer and
fewer department stores, which are traditional
advertisers in big city papers. And within the
newspaper families themselves, an increasing
number of members want to diversify their assets,
as they try to get a better return on their
investment. For some families, one solution has
been a sale. From a pure business standpoint, the
Murdoch bid of $5 billion, or $60 a share, might
make sense for News Corp., whose media empire
includes Fox Broadcasting. This fall, Fox plans
to roll out a business news channel to compete
with CNBC. Ownership of Dow Jones would thus give
Fox access to reporters and information. If Mr.
Murdoch or another media company were to take
over Dow Jones, some worry that it would mean yet
more concentration in the industry. "We're seeing
a decline in the commitment of resources for
doing journalism," says Bob McChesney, professor
of communications at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign. Mark Crispin Miller, who
teaches media, culture, and communications at New
York University, notes that some members of
Congress are worried about this trend. But, he adds, "No one will go near it." CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS PROPOSE REPORTER SHIELD LAW
[SOURCE: MediaWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
A bipartisan group of Congressional leaders
introduced Wednesday a bill to establish a
federal shield law to protect reporters from
being forced to disclose their confidential
sources. The Free Flow of Information Act was
introduced by House Reps. Rick Boucher (D-VA),
John Conyers (D-MI), Mike Pence (R-IN), Howard
Coble (R-NC), and John Yarmuth (D-KY) and by
Sens. Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Christopher Dodd
(D-CT). The bill has broad support from a working
alliance of more than 40 media companies and
journalistic organizations, including the
National Association of Broadcasters and the
Radio-Television News Directors Association.
Although 32 states and the District of Columbia
have reporter shield laws, the new legislation
would create a federal standard for protecting
journalists and their confidential sources. The
legislation also protects information held by
telephone companies, Internet services and other
communications providers, that would otherwise reveal confidential sources. DINGELL BACKS RETURN OF FAIRNESS DOCTRINE
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell
(D-MI) offered a new call to revive the Federal
Communication Commission's fairness doctrine,
which required broadcasters to offer competing
viewpoints in a balanced manner when presenting
controversial issues. He also suggested any
congressional action to regulate violent TV this
year is unlikely. "I don't see much happening
this year [on violence]. It could change in 5
minutes if somebody does something dumb," the
powerful congressman told the annual government
affairs conference of the three main advertising
groups, the American Advertising Federation, the
Association of National Advertisers and the
American Association of Advertising Agencies. The
FCC in a report delivered last week recommended
Congress act to regulate violent content. Rep
Dingell didn't say exactly what he would do to
reimpose the fairness doctrine. He also said he
believes broadcasters should have no trouble with
any action on the issue. "Can you explain to me
why a broadcaster ought not to have to be fair or
would not be fair?" he said. He also hinted an
initiative would be forthcoming, saying, "If you
are concerned about it, keep your eye on me,
because I intend to address this one very soon." PRIME-TIME TV SWEEPS: AS DEMEANING IMAGES OF WOMEN RISE, SO DO RATINGS
[SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: Sandra Kobrin, Women's eNews]
[Commentary] As TV networks head into their big
sweeps and hotly compete for ratings and
advertisers, Sandra Kobrin gapes at the demeaning
and downright scary portrayal of women in our
most powerful communication medium. BIG MEDIA: GOOD, BAD OR BOTH?
[SOURCE: Poynter Institute, AUTHOR: Pat Walters]
At times, the debate surrounding media ownership
can appear singularly uncomplicated.
Consolidation is evil, one person argues.
Consolidation is good, says another. But if any
one thing became clear at the FCC's media
ownership hearing in Tampa, it is this: Like most
public-policy issues, the question of media
ownership is more complex than that. In all, more
than 100 people spoke to the commissioners. But
while opinions, viewpoints and stories were easy
to come by, practical suggestions were scarce.
When she spoke in the second panel, Poynter
president Karen Brown Dunlap offered one. As she
emphasized the importance of local public affairs
reporting, Dunlap suggested the FCC require what
she called a "community report" before
relicensing any station. "It would be a return to
a more rigorous assessment," she said. "It could
involve a small task force of citizens, a
cross-section of a community, led by a leader
from outside that community, maybe a journalism
professor." The task force would present its
findings to the station leaders, the community
and, ultimately, the FCC. "Clearly any one form
of media ownership doesn't determine the quality
of stewardship," Dunlap said. "Many communities
suffer under local owners who bleed their
stations for profits and to promote personal
interests. There are large corporations,
including chain owners who serve local communities with outstanding service." CHILDREN'S MEDIA SKEW GENDER
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Geena Davis, Actress]
[Commentary] In 2005-06, the University of
Southern California's Annenberg School of
Communication conducted the most comprehensive
analysis of children's movies and TV programming
ever done. Analyzing the 101 top-grossing G-rated
movies released from 1990 through 2004, USC's
research reveals that there are three male
characters for every one female. Children's TV
does better on gender balance: Shows rated TVY
(for children under 7) and TVY7 (for children 7+)
have a male/female ratio of roughly 2-1, while
TVG (for all ages) is nearly 1-1. It is
troubling, though, that the imbalance is greatest
in shows for the youngest viewers. In films and
TV for children, male characters are half as
likely as females to be parents or married, and
much more likely to be violent and dumb; those
disparities are even greater for male characters
of color. As for females in G-rated movies, about
a third are either entertainers or royalty
(compared with the 0.1% of the American women who
are entertainers; the USA has no royalty). Kids
learn their value by seeing themselves reflected
in the culture. If their reflection is visible
and common, they can say, "I must count. I see
myself." But what message are we sending children
with so few female characters? Or when male
relationships and female accomplishments are
devalued? We're teaching them that girls and
women are less valuable, while options for boys
and girls are determined primarily by gender.
This message damages girls and boys. U S PUT CHINA, RUSSIA ON COPYRIGHT PIRACY WATCH LIST
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
China, Russia and 10 other nations were targeted
by the Bush administration Monday for failing to
sufficiently protect U.S. producers of music,
movies and other copyrighted material from
widespread piracy. The Bush administration placed
the 12 countries on a "priority watch list,"
which will subject them to extra scrutiny and
could eventually lead to economic sanctions if
the administration decides to bring trade cases
before the World Trade Organization. An
additional 31 countries were placed on
lower-level monitoring lists, indicating that the
concerns about copyright violations in those
nations did not warrant the highest level of
scrutiny. The designations occurred in a report
that the administration is required to provide
Congress each year highlighting problems that
U.S. companies are facing around the world with
copyright piracy, which they contend is costing
them billions of dollars in lost sales annually. NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION IN STEEP SLIDE ACROSS NATION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Richard Perez-Pena]
Newspaper sales continue a steep slide
nationally. The industry reported a 2.1 percent
drop in weekday circulation, and 3.1 percent on
Sundays, in the six months ended March 31,
compared with the period a year earlier. The
figures, compiled by the Audit Bureau of
Circulations but not yet audited, reflect 745 of
the nation’s more than 1,400 daily newspapers.
The figures follow first-quarter reports for the
nation’s major newspaper companies that showed
falling earnings, declines in advertising and
plans for continued staff cuts, heightening fears
about the future of newspapers. Circulation
figures have dropped gradually for two decades,
beginning in the 1980s, but since 2004, the
decline has picked up speed as readers and
advertisers have migrated to the Internet. Click here for earler Benton files. (c)
Benton Foundation 2003. Redistribution of this email publication -- both internally
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