When it comes to news consumption, mobile devices are expanding reach, rather than cannibalizing other media, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.
2012 TV and Radio News Staffing and Profitability Survey
July 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
From RTDNA on July 10 –
The latest RTDNA/Hofstra University Annual Survey found that TV news staffing soared in 2011 – adding 1,131 jobs – to reach total full time employment of 27,653.
That’s a gain of 4.3% over last year and the highest average full time TV news staff ever. However, overall, it puts 2011 in second place for total TV news employment. First place is still held by year 2000. The average station newsroom employment then was lower than today, but more stations originated local news.
Confidence in TV news at all-time low
July 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Photo credit: chrisinplymouth (Creative Commons)
By DYLAN BYERS on Politico, July 10 –
Americans’ confidence in television news has hit an all-time low, according to a new survey by Gallup.
Twenty-one percent of the 1,004 adults polled said they had “a great deal” or “a lot” of confidence in television news media, continuing a steady decline from the 46 percent who expressed confidence in television media in 1993.
Meanwhile, just 25 percent of those polled expressed confidence in newspapers, the second-lowest rating since 1973 and less than half of the 51-percent peak in 1979.
Read the full article on Politico
87% of Connected Consumers Prefer Websites to Apps
January 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Creative Commons: Prasan
Alicia Eler recently wrote on the RWW site that connected consumers prefer using websites and mobile websites to apps. She said:
“Welcome to the connected consumer. This person most likely has a tablet and smartphone, and is constantly connected to their friends via Facebook. Today, more than 60% of 25-34 year-olds (Gen-Y) own a smartphone. One in three online consumers will buy a tablet by 2014. That’s a lot to digest at once, right? A new survey from Zmagsinvestigates the connected consumer and their digital habits.
Only 4% of these consumers use branded apps. Eighty-seven percent prefer to use websites and mobile sites. This is good news for the so-called tablet commerce revolution (can a consumer movement be rightly called a “revolution”? I shudder), which suggests that tablet owners are using tablet-optimized websites like Amazon.com. But this connected consumer is not a Gen-Y. She is…wait for it…a 40-something-year-old woman.”
You can read the full post on Read Write Web here.
Although these statistics don’t refer to news website directly, 87% is a very high majority of consumers who prefer websites to apps.
Question: Do you think a higher percentage of news readers prefer sites to apps as well?
Nielsen: One-third of mobile users downloaded news apps in past month
January 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
By Jeff Sonderman on Poynter, Jan. 9, 2012 –
“One-third of tablet and smartphone owners in a Nielsen survey said they had downloaded a news app within the past 30 days, and 19 percent had paid for one. The chart below shows survey results for news and other categories.”
Image credit: Nielsen
AP Tells Staff To Stop Tweeting News Before It’s Published
November 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
According to Joe Coscarelli at New York Magazine, the AP recently sent out an email to its employees reminding them not to tweet breaking news before it’s been published. The email was sent after a number of AP staff were tweeting about fellow AP reporters being arrested at Occupy Wall Street protests.
Coscarelli wrote that the email said,
In relation to AP staff being taken into custody at the Occupy Wall Street story, we’ve had a breakdown in staff sticking to policies around social media and everyone needs to get with their folks now to tell them to knock it off.
The official AP staff guidelines for using social media states,
Don’t break news that we haven’t published, no matter the format.
Do you think AP staff should refrain from tweeting breaking news before it’s published?
Study finds tablet news junkies prefer web to apps
October 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Credit: New York Times
A recent Pew Research Center study showed that tablet users are consuming more news than they did before they owned a tablet. Although this is a good thing for news companies, the study also shows that users are getting the news primarily from the web (or a combination of the web and an app) instead of from the mobile apps alone. With many news agencies investing time and money into mobile apps, this report may help direct future mobile decisions for news organizations.
PaidContent had this to say about this study:
According to the report, 30 percent are spending more time with the news than before they had a tablet, and one-third are seeking out new news organizations on their tablets they didn’t frequent on their computers or televisions.
That probably all sounds pretty good to a news industry that is looking for any semblance of a spark from the rise of tablets as an alternative to print. But unfortunately for those who have invested heavily in applications as their news-delivery strategy on tablets, 40 percent of those who read news on their tablets at least once a week are getting that news through their browser. An additional 31 percent say they use a combination of the browser and apps, while just 21 percent said they primarily use apps to get their news.
Book Review – The Frontier Newspapers and the Coverage of the Plains Indian Wars
October 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The Frontier Newspapers and the Coverage of the Plains Indian Wars. Hugh J. Reilly. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010. 162 pp.
Nineteenth-century U.S. press culpability in encouraging heavy-handed military solutions regarding the troublesome Plains Indians is always worth a study. In a word, then, Hugh J. Reilly’s The Frontier Newspapers and the Coverage of the Plains Indian Wars is best described as useful.
Reilly, an associate professor of communication and Native American studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, has collected newspaper accounts and editorials of nearly thirty years of press coverage of what he calls “watershed” events involving primarily Sioux, Cheyenne, and Nez Perce Indians, and their tragic relationships with the U.S. government. [Read more...]
Book Review – Explaining News
October 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Explaining News. Cristina Archetti. New York, NY: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2010. 257 pp.
Cristina Archetti is a British political scientist with teaching experience in Washington and Amsterdam and an interest in international news. Explaining News is her ambitious study of eight newspapers in four countries that explores what shapes the news. The book, based on her Ph.D. thesis at the University of Leeds, is a tough read. It is clearly written, but densely packed with data, hypotheses, and theories. Advanced graduate students and faculty can perhaps fully appreciate it, especially for its wealth of data. [Read more...]
Book Review – Can Journalism Be Saved? Rediscovering America’s Appetite for News
October 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Can Journalism Be Saved? Rediscovering America’s Appetite for News. Rachel Davis Mersey. New York, NY: Praeger, 2010. 167 pp.
There is a considerable and growing body of literature about the future of journalism. Most of it paints a bleak picture, for a variety of reasons. Audiences appear to be shrinking for both print and broadcast news. Resources are being reduced—nationally, daily newspaper newsrooms have been cut by nearly 25% during the past ten years. Many mainstream news organizations are losing money on their legacy operations, and they have yet to figure out or embrace alternative business models that could lead to profitability online. The problem is the result of two major simultaneous changes in the business environment of news organizations—emergence of digital technologies and the increased diversity of communities. [Read more...]