Cable News Ops Join Network News in Downward Spin

Image by trainman74 via FlickrCable news viewership has stalled and network evening news ratings continued to shrink for a thirtieth consecutive year, according to the annual Project for Excellence in Journalism State of the News Media report released today.

As reported by Broadcasting & Cable and The Hollywood Reporter, evening newscasts by the former "Big 3" networks plunged 3.4 percent in viewership compared to the previous year. The Brian Williams-anchored NBC Nightly News suffered the least in 2010, dropping 1.4 percent to an average 8.5 million viewers nightly, compared to a 3.9 percent decline in viewers to 7.43 million for Diane Sawyer's ABC World News and the free-falling CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, which plummeted 5.5 percent to an average audience of 5.65 million.

Meanwhile, the news wasn't so bright for CNN, Fox News and MSNBC either, where the median prime-time  audience collectively shrank by 16 percent to 3.2 million, based on Nielsen Media Research figures. CNN led the march off the cliff, dropping 37 percent to 564,000 viewers, compared to Fox's 11 percent decline to 1.9 million viewers, and MSNBC's 5 percent drop-off to 747,000 watchers. Daytime viewership fell 12 percent for the cable threesome.

Online media, alone, saw its audience increase in 2010 by 17 percent. A December 2010, survey cited the Internet as the source for national and international news among 41 percent of respondents.

Fewer Ads + Less Money=No News

Image via Wikipedia

A study just released by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) concluded that newspapers spend $1.6 billion less annually on reporting and editing than a decade ago.

The Pew Research Center also found that half of 37 publicly traded media companies for which data was available lost money last year. The findings are not surprising, given the PEJ study that showed newspaper ad revenues off  26 percent in 2009, while local tv and radio barely fared better, with revenues declining 22 percent. Magazine ad revenues dropped 17 percent, and even online ad revenues plunged 5 percent in 2009.  Media types looking to the Internet as a panacea will be distressed by the study findings that 80 percent of online news consumers admit they never, or rarely click on online ads.

PEJ Survey: Online News Paywalls Hit a Brick Wall

Image by Peter Forret via Flickr

A recent online survey of more than 2,200 persons by the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ)  yielded bad news for cash-strapped newspaper publishers hoping to generate revenue by posting online content behind paywalls.

According to the PEJ survey of 2,259 indivduals during December 2009-January 2010, only 19 percent expressed a willingness to pay for news content online. Worse, 82 percent of those queried who regularly visit specific news Web sites would search out alternative sites if their preferred site charged to view news content.
 The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.

The PEJ study revealed that if forced to choose, participants preferred a subscription service to a pay-as-you-go plan for their online news reading.

J-Grads J-obless, Study Finds

Image via Wikipedia

Mark Jurkowitz of the Project for Excellence in Journalism reports that the Univ. of Georgia "Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communications Graduates," which elicited responses from 2,500 recent grads, revealed that just slightly more than 60 percent of 2008 bachelor degree conferees had landed full-time jobs in the approximate six months since graduation.

The statistics are the lowest in the study's 23-year history and dim compared to 2007 grads, 70 percent of whom landed jobs in the field. The median salary of $30,000 for bachelor degree recipients remains unchanged from 2006 and 2007 figures.