From AuburnPub.com - Editorial by Jeremy Boyer - The annual State of the News Media report from Pew Research Center is something many journalists look forward to reading, because it brings together a huge amount of industry data to help us see how we're doing, where we're going and where we've been.
That report for 2016 came out a few weeks ago, and while I've become accustomed to seeing some troubling trends identified for the newspaper industry, this year's report was especially tough to read.
Here's a snapshot from one of the summary sections:
"For newspapers, 2015 might as well have been a recession year. Weekday circulation fell 7% and Sunday circulation fell 4%, both showing their greatest declines since 2010. At the same time, advertising revenue experienced its greatest drop since 2009, falling nearly 8% from 2014 to 2015. Fully one-fourth of advertising revenue now comes from digital advertising, but not because of growth in that area: Digital advertising revenue fell 2% in 2015. It's just that non-digital advertising revenue fell more, dropping 10% in 2015. In 2014, the latest year for which data were available, newsroom employment also declined 10%, more than in any other year since 2009."
As I was reading all of this doom and gloom, I looked out at our newsroom and two thoughts filled my head:
1. Indeed, we are a significantly smaller operation in terms of staffing compared with when I started here about 12 years ago, but ...
2. After several years of shrinking, we've stabilized and even grown a little over the past three years.
I also know that from a financial perspective, 2015 was a strong year for The Citizen and the current year has also been promising. It could always be better, but as I could see from the 2016 State of the News Media report, it could be a lot worse, too.
So how to reconcile what I'm seeing on the ground here in Auburn with what's going on in the newspaper industry? More
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Patrick Dolan buys majority stake in Newsday
Less than a year after his family sold Newsday to telecoms giant Altice USA, cable TV scion Patrick Dolan is buying a huge stake in the storied Long Island-based newspaper.
Word broke yesterday via Newsday that Dolan, the president of News 12 Networks and son of HBO founder Charles Dolan, was purchasing a 75 percent stake in Newsday Media, the parent company of Newsday, amNewYork and the Hometown Shopper papers. His father will maintain "a small financial interest" in the company, per Newsday:
"My father and I, together with our Altice partners, are deeply committed to preserving the state-of-the-art journalism that Newsday has consistently provided and that has served Long Islanders so well," Patrick Dolan said.
Newsday didn't disclose the terms of the deal. More
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Gannett Acquires North Jersey Media Group
From Gannett Press Release - Gannett announced Wednesday it has acquired certain assets of the North Jersey Media Group Inc., including The Record (Bergen County), the Herald News, and their affiliated digital properties. Also included in the sale are the Community News Group, the Magazine Group, and the Events Group. Gannett expects the acquisition to contribute approximately $90 million in annual revenues and will approach approximately corporate-average margins by the end of the first full year of operations. "Gannett continues to execute on its local market growth strategy. This latest acquisition positions the company to be the leading news provider in the state of New Jersey," said Robert Dickey, President and CEO of Gannett. "These organizations are now part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, the largest local-to-national media network in the U.S. More
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From Pew Research Center - Wave after wave of digital innovation has introduced a new set of influences on the public's news habits. Social media, messaging apps, texts and email provide a constant stream of news from people we're close to as well as total strangers. News stories can now come piecemeal, as links or shares, putting less emphasis on the publisher. And, hyper levels of immediacy and mobility can create an expectation that the news will come to us whether we look for it or not. How have these influences shaped Americans' appetite for and attitudes toward the news? What, in other words, are the defining traits of the modern news consumer?
A new, two-part survey by Pew Research Center, conducted in early 2016 in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, reveals a public that is cautious as it moves into this more complex news environment and discerning in its evaluation of available news sources.
To be sure, news remains an important part of public life. More than seven-in-ten U.S. adults follow national and local news somewhat or very closely - 65% follow international news with the same regularity. Fully 81% of Americans get at least some of this news through websites, apps or social networking sites. And, this digital news intake is increasingly mobile. Among those who get news both on desktop computers and mobile devices, more than half prefer mobile. More ______________________________________________________
Also, When it comes to trust and sharing, news consumers have some surprisingly retro attitudes - article by Rick Edmonds on Poynter.org
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Knight Foundation gives Poynter $758,000 to remake online journalism education
From Poynter.org - The Knight Foundation announced on Tuesday that it's giving The Poynter Institute $758,000 to rebuild News University, its online journalism education platform.
The grant will be used to create a new, mobile-friendly version of NewsU, which in 2015 saw an all-time enrollment peak of 102,000. The 11-year-old program, which was founded in 2005 with a $2.8 million grant from Knight, is the world's largest online journalism learning platform. It has trained 370,000 people and offers 400 interactive courses with training in seven languages. More
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July 14 - Webinar, Funding Ethics: Today's landscape and tomorrow's practices
From Institute for Non-Profit News - As the nonprofit news sector continues to grow, the ethics of accepting grants from foundations and gifts from donors is still evolving. With support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the American Press Institute recently explored the ethical practices of today's nonprofit news organizations, foundations and commercial outlets. This July, join two of the report's authors, Bill Buzenberg and Marjorie Connelly, for 1) an overview of what was learned from three surveys of the growing nonprofit news landscape, and 2) discussion on which practices are most critical for successful relationships with funders.
Lorie Hearn of inewsource in San Diego and Andy Hall of WisconsinWatch in Madison, who helped INN frame and implement the INN Membership Standards and practices, join INN CEO Sue Cross is talking about how they were developed and how non profits can use the INN templates and tools in their ethics practices.
In follow-up work, API has been asked to compile recommendations on ethical practices based on feedback from key stakeholders. A vital element is building off lessons from INN Membership Standards, INN member practices and more. More
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UPCOMING WEBINARS AND EVENTS
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In a New York Minute is the weekly electronic newsletter of NYNPA, providing you with member news, money-saving and money-generating ideas, and upcoming events. If you would like to contribute to this newsletter please reply to this e-mail or contact mmiller@nynpa.com. For more on NYNPA please visit us on the web at www.nynpa.com.
Mary Miller
Education Services Director
New York News Publishers Association
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