Core value survives

     Last week, I made passing reference to the release of the results of an intriguing must-read -- the fifth annual State of the News Media by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. This is comprehensive work with an ambitious aim: "Its goal is to gather in one place as much data as possible about all the major sectors of journalism, to identify trends, mark key indicators, note areas for further inquiry and provide a resource for citizens, journalists and researchers."

     Work is focused on six genre of media: Newspapers, Online, TV (network, cable and local), Magazines, Radio and Ethnic Media.

     Extremely important findings surface in Newspapers' content analysis. There, we see clear measures of the value that local newspapers such as the Star-Telegram bring to their circulation areas in terms of localizing and personalizing national trends, helping people understand the forces that are acting on their community with news and information that either can't be found anywhere else or can't be found easily, not even online.

     This is the value that's at stake as newspapers search for competitive positions from which to contend with the new media paradigms.

     Here are just a few snippets, with emphasis from me, from the content analysis.    

      "Despite numerous hits to the industry and a rush of resources away from print and toward the Web, newspapers stood out in 2007 for unique coverage. Their particular strength, at least in print, may be less covering breaking news than tracking stories that percolated, ebbed and flowed over the course of the year.

     "The nation’s newspapers gave front-page coverage to issues and events often not found in other news genres.

     "The state of the U.S. economy, the continuing debate over health care policies and foreign news beyond the war in Iraq, among others, stood out on newspaper front-pages.

The Economy

     "In January of 2008, economic concerns rose significantly among Americans to rival the war in Iraq as the top problem facing the country. At the same time, it began driving the presidential primary debates and became a top issue influencing primary votes.

     "In the press, newspapers had already been covering the issue for months, dedicating staff, space and early attention the story when most other genres had yet to treat it as top news. Looking across 2007, newspaper front pages covered the downturn in the U.S. economy more than any of the other six genres studied.

     "Overall, it was No. 4 among the biggest stories of the year in newspapers, accounting for 3% of the front-page newshole. The only other genres to include the economy on their top 10 list were online news sites, where it ranked No. 6 over all (2%) and network morning and evening television news, where it placed No. 5 for each (2%).

     "The emphasis in print is even greater than it first may seem, considering it includes only the front-page articles. The business section fronts may well have had more. This compares to the entirety of network evening news shows, the hard news section of the morning programs (where all the economic news would likely be) and several hours of cable programming each day. (The online news studied is more similar to newspapers — the top five stories of the page.)

     "This difference also was not a case of the big national papers tuned in to debates in Washington and on Wall Street while smaller papers across the country focused on more local matters. If anything, the local papers tuned in to the issue of the flagging economy first.

     "The issue actually accounted for more of the front-page newshole in medium-sized metropolitan papers (3.6%) (like the Star-Telegram) and small papers (3.4%) than the national papers (2.9%)3. Part of this attention at the local level was due to the nature of the story. It did not evolve as a Washington policy event initially but in neighborhoods across the country as people found their houses were not selling or the sale of their neighbors’ houses suggested their home values may have dropped.

     "The sense of security that people had in their homes began to waver, and local newspapers began reporting the shifts, having attachments to the local communities and still with newsrooms structured to cover more than the news of the moment (something local television finds hard to break free of).

Health Care Policy

     "Newspapers also stood out as the one genre to devote significant amount of front-page space to the debate over health care policy. In 2007, it was not one big event or debate in Congress driving the coverage, but a story that ebbed and flowed throughout the course of the year as Congress debated new programs, states adopted new practices or public opinion shifted.

     "Overall, the health care debate was the 10th-biggest story on newspaper front-pages and accounted for 2% of the total front-page newshole.

     "As with the economy, this was not a case of the big papers covering the Washington debate. The issue actually accounted for more coverage in mid-sized papers (2%), followed by the smallest (1.8%) and then the national papers (1.4%).4 In this case, more than half of the reporting was about initiatives or problems in health care policies at the state or local level.

Geographic Range

     "Beyond the issues in our own country, newspapers also were second only to news Web sites in their coverage of foreign affairs that did not involve the U.S. directly.

     "The newspapers examined here devoted 13% of their front-page coverage to non-U.S. news, three times that of cable news (4%), more than double that of radio (7%) and also more than network television news (9%). Only online coverage devoted more — nearly 25% of lead-story coverage.

     "Aside from events in Iraq the biggest foreign stories were about the situation in Pakistan (9%), the conflict in Israel and the Palestinian territories (3% on conflict between Israel and Palestine and 2% on the factions among the Palestinians ) and Iran (2%).

Conclusion

     "As newspapers struggle with the future unknowns — audience base, delivery mechanism, revenue base and even reporting agenda -- one thing is clear: In 2007, the print pages, and the print front-pages in particular, still provided information that was harder to find elsewhere. How, and if, that service translates to the Web or to the distribution of newsroom resources remains to be seen."

     -- David House