Journalism.org: State of News Media in 2008

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The Project of Excellence in Journalism (found online at Journalism.org) today released their State of News Media in 2008 report, an in depth look at all things news media.

Highlights from the report:

News is shifting from being a product – today’s newspaper, Web site or newscast – to becoming a service – how can you help me, even empower me?

A news organization and a news Web site are no longer final destinations.

The prospects for user-created content, once thought possibly central to the next era of journalism, for now appear more limited, even among “citizen” sites and blogs.

Increasingly, the newsroom is perceived as the more innovative and experimental part of the news industry.

The agenda of the American news media continues to narrow, not broaden.

Madison Avenue, rather than pushing change, appears to be having trouble keeping up with it.

Here’s something PRNewser, along with Vasanth Sridharan at Alley Insider finds depressing: 81% of national broadcast journalists, 80% of local broadcast journalists, 63% of local print journalists, and 53% of national print journalists still say that their traditional medium – not the Web – is the priority at their companies.

A bright spot? Cable: Analysts projected operating profits to rise 20% in 2007. Fox News was expected to see the biggest jump (30%), with MSNBC close behind (28%) and CNN to maintain the same growth rate as in 2006 (10%). And 2008 could be even better. So far, the campaign for president has proven a boon for cable news, with debates and election nights setting records in ratings.

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