TV Makes Gains, Newspapers Still Decline

Overall, there were some bright spots for the media business in 2011, according to the Pew Research Center’s State of the New Media 2012. Local and national TV News saw some gains, but declines continued for newspapers.

The greatest change seems to affect newspapers. Surviving editorial staff members in newspaper newsrooms saw their role changing.

“The contemporary newsroom has fewer articles to produce after trims in the physical size of paper and reduction of the space devoted to news,” the report stressed. “But the remaining editors and reporters are also being stretched further by the need to generate content suitable for smartphones and tablets as well as establishing a social media presence. This is all in addition to putting out the print paper daily and feeding breaking news to websites.”

What follows are excerpts from the Key Findings of the report.

Newspapers:

Of all media sectors, newspapers suffered the most in 2011. While new measurements made exact yearly comparisons difficult, [Pew survey] chapter co-author Rick Edmonds estimates that weekday circulation fell about 4 percent and Sundays fell 1percent for the six-month period ending September 30. Newspapers’ digital audiences are growing. Newspaper websites are popular and total audience reach is staying steady.

In 2011, print advertising revenues were down approximately $2.1 billion, or 9.2 percent. Although online advertising was up approximately $207 million (6.8 percent) compared with 2010, those gains do not come close to making up for the losses in print.

Network TV News:

All television news viewership increased in 2011, but it was most evident on the networks, whose audiences grew for the first time in a decade. Average evening news viewership across the three networks increased 4.5 percent, or 972,700 viewers over 2011, according to PEJ analysis of Nielsen Media Research data.

An average of 22.5 million people watched ABC, CBS or NBC News each night in 2011. The PBS NewsHour’s average viewership was nearly unchanged, remaining at 1.1 million viewers nightly during the 2010-11 season.

Networks overall saw a decrease in total revenue in 2011. The market research firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson, which looks at networks overall, not just news divisions, estimated that network ad revenue decreased 3.7 percent in 2011.

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Major Media Trends

The Pew Research Center’s State of the News Media 2012 report was released March 19. Here are brief (and shortened) excerpts taken verbatim from the report’s Major Trends segment:

Each year, this report identifies key trends in the news industry. In addition to the shift to mobile and the intensifying gap with the biggest technology companies, here are other trends that stand out:

Mobile may be leading to a deeper experience with news than on the desktop/laptop computer. 

As sales of e-readers and tablet computers grow, PEJ’s early research has found consumers are reading more immersively on these devices than on earlier technology. New survey data released here add to that. More than a quarter of the population, 27 percent, now get news on mobile devices. And these mobile news consumers are even more likely to turn to news organizations directly, through apps and home pages, rather than search or recommendations — strengthening the bond with traditional brands. 

Social media are important but not overwhelming drivers of news, at least not yet.

Some 133 million Americans, or 54 percent of the online U.S. population, are now active users on Facebook (out of 850 million monthly active users globally)… But the notion that large percentages of Americans now get their news mainly from recommendations from friends does not hold up, according to survey data released here. No more than 10 percent of digital news consumers follow news recommendations from Facebook or Twitter “very often,” the new survey finds. And almost all of those who do are still using other ways like going directly to the news website or app as well.

News viewership on television grew in unexpected venues. 

At the three traditional broadcast television networks, news audiences grew 4.5 percent, the first uptick in a decade. At the local level, audiences grew in both morning and late evening, the first growth in five years.

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Dancing With Big Technology

The downward spiral for traditional news organizations is showing signs of reversing, thanks to the surge in sales for smartphones and other digital devices. Increasing use of mobile devices is adding to the public’s news consumption appetite, says the Pew Research Center in its State of the News Media 2012 report.

Released March 19, this year’s annual media review is far less doom and gloom. Now that Americans are fully engaged in the digital age – more than 75 percent now own computers – some surprising growth trends are surfacing, according to the report 

“New research released in this report finds that mobile devices are adding to people’s news consumption, strengthening the lure of traditional news brands and providing a boost to long-form journalism.”

Audience numbers are being driven up because of easier access to news offered by smartphones. “Eight in 10 who get news on smartphones or tablets, for instance, get news on conventional computers as well.” 

That bit of encouraging news is brought to us courtesy of the big technology companies, But be alert, the annual survey warns. Recent trends in big technology are something to watch closely. Pew points to two trends in the last year: 

“First, the explosion of new mobile platforms and social-media channels represents another layer of technology with which news organizations must keep pace.”

“Second, in the last year, a small number of technology giants began rapidly moving to consolidate their power by becoming makers of “everything” in our digital lives. Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and a few others are maneuvering to make the hardware people use, the operating systems that run those devices, the browsers on which people navigate, the email services on which they communicate, the social networks on which they share and the web platforms on which they shop and play. And all of this will provide these companies with detailed personal data about each consumer.”

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Old Media Wins Election Audience Share

It’s as if someone bellies up to the bar next to you and says, “I’ll have an Old Style.” But this isn’t a request about a favorite beer, but how thirsty news consumers want their election news.

People who closely follow election news prefer to get voting results by “old media,” such as cable television, according to a story reported by National Public Radio. The NPR report was based on a survey of more than 1,500 persons by the Pew Research Center. It showed that more than one-third of Americans are leaning on cable channels for election news — just as many as in past years — while relying less on local television stations, newspapers and the national networks, NPR reported. 

Social media has been much heralded but relatively little used by average voters, according to Andrew Kohut, president, Pew Research Center. “And the new media kids on the block? The media may be fixated on them,” Kohut told NPR, “but the public is not.”

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Stepping Up to the New Nuclear Family

This weekend, take a close look at the group of people surrounding the family Christmas tree. Do these guests in your home have the same relationship as the siblings, partners, parents and loved ones had in your home five decades ago?

It seems the pillars of western civilization are beginning to buckle and crack. For example, a growing number of Millennials (18- to 29-year olds) significantly downgrade the importance of marriage as opposed to the X Generation just preceding it. The reasons may be puzzling for public affairs professionals and marketers trying to determine community attitudes.

Understanding the voting tendencies of youth may hold the key for passing education and transportation funding measures or promoting new services. In the end, the emerging viewpoint on marriage may have more to do with indifference toward marriage than any strong moral position for or against the institution. But the declining few who do support the traditional views of marriage and family will be tenacious in holding onto their views

The Pew Research Center has released a series of reports throughout the year, posting a summary of its work earlier this month. The transformative trends of the past 50 years that have led to a sharp decline in marriage and a rise of new family forms have been shaped by attitudes and behaviors differing by class, age and race.

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