Pew: The State of Statehouse Reporting

Just out is a new research report from Pew Research Center that looks into local state legislative reporting and staffing.  It follows the general trend of newsroom staffing, with large declines in full-time newspaper newsroom staffing.  Major findings include:

• Most news organizations don't have anyone assigned to the statehouse beat. Only 30% of daily papers and 14% of local TV news have anyone regularly covering the statehouse (either full- or part-time)
• 16% of reporters covering the statehouse work for nonprofits or digital-only sites. Interestingly, that's about the same percentage for full-time reporters, suggesting that nontraditional outlets are just as likely as traditional news outlets to assign the statehouse as a full-time beat
• Some 14% of statehouse reporters are actually students.  (While not specifically addressed, it's likely that most of these are interns).

Some bemoan the shift in focus from local and state coverage to an increasing emphasis on national (and non-news) coverage.

“I do think there’s been a loss in general across the country, and that’s very concerning to me,” said Patrick Marley, who covers the Wisconsin statehouse for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We have scads of reporters in Washington covering every bit of news that Congress makes. State legislators have more effect on people’s daily lives. We need to have eyes on them, lots of eyes.”

Another concern is that many news organization are combining statehouse staffing and coordinating their coverage, which shrinks (if not eliminates) diversity and investigative reporting.  The study also notes that most states are producing their own news feeds of statehouse activities, providing a cheap source for raw coverage and the potential for state actors to frame coverage to their advantage.

Sources:  America's Shifting Statehouse Press: Can New Players Compensate for Lost Legacy Reporters, Pew Research Center
Full Research  Report, Pew Research Center
Legislative Broadcasts and Webcasts, National Conference of State Legislatures

Tribune reorganizing publishing, will cut 700 jobs

The Tribune Company announce in a memo to employees that it will be restructuring its publishing division to focus on digital operations and "streamlining" operations (which usually means centralizing jobs that had been done independently at its 8 daily newspapers).

"The new operational plan is going to change the company into one company with eight locations, as opposed to how we operate now which is eight individual and separate businesses," (Tribune Co. President and CEO Peter) Liguori said. 

The company hopes the move will trim costs to match the publishing division's declining revenues as it seeks to spin the publishing division into a separate company.  While remaining profitable, the publishing division's ad revenues fell by $84 million last year, and are already down another $62 million in the first nine months of this year.

The publishing division has already cut its expenses by 13% so far this year, primarily by reducing compensation costs through job cuts.  About 340 positions have already been eliminated in the division,  and the memo anticipates job cuts will double to around 700 by the end of the year.  Last year, the Tribune Co. eliminated about 800 jobs in its publishing division.

The strategy of using job eliminations to offset declining revenues, however, can only be effective if the revenue shortfalls don't continue.  In the face of continuing, industry-wide, long-term print advertising revenue declines (that aren't being replaced in full by digital revenue growth), cutting positions can only be seen as a stopgap measure.  And a risky one if the job cuts impact news content production and quality.

Source -  Tribune Co. reorganizes publishing unit, cutting nearly 700 jobs,  Chicago Tribune

What's up at NYTimes? Staffers continue to jump ship.

Yesterday, three more high-profile editors and writers quit the New York Times.  Sunday Magazine Editor-in-Chief Hugo Lindgren, Chief Political Correspondent Matt Bai, and media columnist Brian Stelter joined the procession of senior staff leaving the New York Times in recent months.
In the words of one former Times journalist, the paper doesn't have the cachet or perks it once did -

“Nearly everyone who gets a lucrative offer will leave,” (a former Times) journalist said. “The era of the lifelong Timesman -- or lifelong Timeswoman -- is over.” 

Times executive editor Jill Abramson tried to put a positive spin on things while acknowledging the large number of departures -

"Retention is becoming a challenge," Abramson told New York magazine. "The economy has improved, whether it's Bloomberg or The Huffington Post, I can feel on any given week that I'm playing whack-a-mole keeping our most talented people."

Perhaps referring to your top talent as "whack-a-moles" is not the best phrasing for a news organization that still likes to think of itself as elite (joining the Times' recently offered replacements for "repeatedly and consistently lying" - "misspoke" & "factually incorrect statement").  It should be no surprise that staffers in the newsroom are growing concerned about managements ability to retain and nurture talent.

It should be noted that the departure frenzy was initially bolstered by the Times' multiple offers over the last five years of buy-outs to dozens senior news staffers as cost-savings measures, and continued concerns over newsroom costs.

Source -  New York Times Departures Heighten Concerns About Staff Retention,  Huffington Post

The State of Local TV News

The Pew State of the News Media 2013 report is out, and addresses a range of news outlets by media type. This post will look at Local TV News, and I'll start off noting that the report and numbers actually cover 2012.
The quick report - amount of local news programming is up, local TV advertising revenues are up (thanks to high levels of political advertising), but audiences for local TV news programs continues to decline.  Local TV broadcasters also experienced revenue gains from retransmission fees (growing 30-40% a year recently), and continued growth in digital revenues and online advertising - although these segments account for only 10-12% of station revenues on average. Most revenue forecasts for 2013 expect a small decline, as modest basic growth in some areas are offset by the loss of political advertising.  Long term forecasts suggest modest improvements in revenues over time, although stations will also face growing programming and personnel costs.

Local News Audiences

Audiences for local TV news has been generally declining for years.  Some stations tried to counter this trend by expanding the amount of local news programming they scheduled.  While this may have added some viewing, the numbers show that total audience numbers were declining across all broadcast times and all age groups. The report notes that the small gain in viewership in 2011 was wiped out in 2012.
  In almost every sweeps period, both the ratings and shares for the main local news time slots declined.  Local stations affiliated with the major networks saw audience decline an average of 6% (9% for the prime-time news programs common on Fox affiliates). While the decline in shares was smaller, the problem is that the overall ratings decline indicates that fewer people are watching any kind of TV at those times.  As the report notes:

With fewer people watching broadcast TV in general, local stations have little hope of reversing the long-term decline in audience for news in key time slots.

Another indicator of long term decline is that the drop in viewing is highest among younger adults.  Only 28% of 18-29 year olds indicate that they "regularly" watch local TV news broadcasts

There are indications that local TV news outlets haven't lost all of those users. People are increasingly going to online sources for local news and information. 

“Are they watching us as much? No. But our online numbers are up dramatically,” said Scott Blumenthal, executive vice president for LIN Media. “We are not a TV station anymore as much as a provider of news on multiple platforms.”

Local TV news websites have been helped recently by the expanded use of paywalls for newspaper websites. Online tracking data suggests that when newspapers introduce paywalls or restrict free access to their online news sites, much of their traffic shifts to local TV news websites.  Many local TV news websites are also pushing mobile-friendly sites and apps.

“Our audience proportionally is growing faster on mobile than on Web,” said Chip Mahaney, senior director of local digital operations for E. W. Scripps. “It used to be mobile was a small fraction [of our digital audience]. In some cases mobile has overtaken Web.”

Other research suggests that younger mobile audiences are leading this transition to alternative access to, and delivery of, local news and information.  Some of the viewership decline, particularly among younger adults, may reflect a shift to alternative (digital and mobile) access behaviors, rather than a loss of interest in local news.

Local TV News Programming
2012 saw a continuation of recent trends in local TV news programming.  There continues to be some expansion of local TV news hole, and in the number of news staff (in aggregate and on average - individual station numbers vary widely), and most TV news managers anticipate continuing to add staff over the near term.

  As for staffing, surveys  show an increased reliance on solo journalists (also known as "one-man-bands" or backpack journalists) who can cover news, shoot video, and produce stories for multiple media delivery.

“They’re looking for people who can do everything,” said Micah Johnson, president of MediaStars, an agency that represents TV news employees in contract negotiations.

Asking for more skills has not meant that local stations are willing to pay more.  Average news salaries increased just 2% in 2011, and stations moved to lock in more news staffers into long-term contracts as a means of controlling costs.

  Another way to keep costs under control is to share resources.  Roughly one-fourth of broadcast TV stations airing local news have that news produced by another station in the market.  More than half of the stations originating local news report feeding news stories to other TV stations, radio stations, or local cable channels in their market.  The Pew report suggests that some types of sharing have stabilized and may be declining, as technologies continue to shift production preferences and costs.

The increasing news hole over time has not necessarily resulted in more local news stories.  The number of edited package stories has dropped over time, and average story length has also fallen. In 2012, half of news stories ran under 30 seconds, while only 20% ran a minute or longer. A sampling of local newscasts showed that news packages accounted for only about a third of local TV newshole (down 20% from a 2005 study).  In contrast, the program time for sports almost doubled from 2005 to 2012, and time for weather and traffic also increased.  Combined, sports, weather and traffic coverage account for more than 40% of local news program content (by time). Those topics are also assuming greater importance - Pew reports that 20 of 48 morning and evening local newscasts they examined led with a weather report or story.

The Digital Front
Broadcasters were among the first news media to develop websites, and local news and information was a frequent focus (Bates et al., 1997).  For a while, local stations sought to limit online news coverage for fear that it might impact traditional viewing.  Well, viewing of local TV news broadcasts declined anyway, and now local stations are giving more emphasis to expanding their digital offerings as a way to expand their reach, and particularly to recapture the younger audiences that are rapidly deserting local TV news broadcasts.

“For TV, online generates what TV considers ‘extra revenue’ and helps bring at least some additional audience to the TV screen,” said Bob Papper, who produces the annual RTNDA broadcast news reports.

As a results many local TV stations and newsrooms (who often have separate websites and social media feeds), are pushing into social media and mobile feeds.

Mobile is becoming a larger driver of Web traffic, particularly outside of working hours. At WRAL in Raleigh, N.C., it accounts for 15% of digital visits and could double in six months, according to the station’s general manager, John Conway. “It’s a good way for us to grow our audience at times when historically you’d see somewhat of a trail off of your traffic,” he said.

Research does show that these online digital efforts are attracting users and generating traffic.  Perhaps most importantly, research is starting to suggests that mobile users actually seek and consume more news and information than typical news audiences.  With the rapid expansion of mobile technologies, those in the news industry are hopeful that mobile may lead to a news renaissance of sorts.
  The problem with these digital efforts has been that its been difficult to evaluate their impact and effectiveness.  Online local digital advertising revenues, while growing at a faster rate, are still tiny compared to broadcast advertising revenues.  Similarly, with all of the current focus on online metrics, there aren't any widely accepted (or industry-standard) measures of whether a local station's online, mobile, and social media users have actually expanded their audience.  Nor is there any clear indication of whether social media is delivering on its potential to increase audience engagement.  The potential is there, and stations are optimistic that good things are happening, but stations will need better measures to get top dollar from advertisers.

In sum, the prospects for local TV news is perhaps best described as "hopeful."  Revenues, employment, and newshole appear to be slowly growing over time, even as traditional viewing of local TV news broadcasts continue to decline.  The rise of digital, online, and mobile are providing a plethora of new opportunities for local TV news outlets, although revenue gains from these activities have yet to really kick in.  The real clear change is in the nature and packaging of local news and information - with less focus on investigative and serious news reporting, and more reporting of sports, weather, traffic, and quick headlines, promotions, and social buzz (on social media).  There's growing concern that these shifts in news content might be economically beneficial to local broadcasters, but perhaps not as broadly helpful to society.


Sources -  Local TV: Audience Declines as Revenues Bounce Back, Pew State of the News Media 2013
The Changing TV News Landscape, Pew State of the News Media 2013
"WebTV: How Broadcast Television is Using the World Wide Web,"  Bates et al. research paper.

Off-Topic - US College Tuition Inflation

This comes from a feature called "Scary Chart of the Day", and it is.

Since 1978 (the first year that Tuition costs were tracked and published as a separate category by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics), the costs of College Tuition and Fees have increased almost 1200%.  That's almost twice the increase in Medical Costs, more than three times the rate of increase in Energy costs, and around four times the increase in Food costs.  What makes it worse is that the chart also shows that the curve became steeper around 2002-2003, which indicates that the rate of increase has increased.  Further, the curve remains fairly steady after that kink, which suggests that this increased rate of growth in College Tuition and Fees is a long-term phenomena, rather than a reaction to short-term events and factors (as the jagged Energy costs line reflects).

This should be of concern to Journalism Departments, particularly as starting salaries aren't increasing significantly over time, and certainly not keeping pace with the increasing costs of getting the degree.  In a purely economic market (which thankfully higher education isn't), this would mean declining demand and fewer majors.  And the very real possibility that at some point, the cost of getting a journalism degree would not be recoverable - that is, the degree isn't worth the cost of getting it.  Particularly since, in journalism and media industries, the degree isn't essential to the job.  Declining demand and majors is a real problem for departments and programs in higher education today - and in many programs can be a death knell foreshadowing closure.
  Now that's scary.

Source - Scary Chart of the Day: Tuition Inflation,  College Insurrection

Eircom to downsize

It's the scale of the downsizing that prompts this post -

Irish land and mobile telecomm operator Eircom has announced plans to lay off more than a third of its workforce over the next year and a half - in an attempt to bring its operating costs in line with other major European telecomm operators.  Eventually, more than 2000 of Eircom's 5700 employees as it also attempts to consolidate office locations (i.e. close many small offices), revise traditional work practices (if the union permits), and tries to build a new, cutting edge, broadband fiber network.

“The challenges facing Eircom are significant. They require a fundamental transformation in the way we are organised, the business activities we prioritise and the work practices we have adopted in order to substantially reduce our costs and become more efficient,” said Herb Hribar, Eircom Group CEO.

Good luck with that.  Competition means you can't operate the same way you did as a monopoly telecom, and the speed with which telecom firms can bring costs and practices in line, the greater the odds for long-term survival.

Source -  Eircom to slash 2000 jobs,  Telecoms.com

Clark Kent (Superman) to quit Daily Planet

Concern over the current state of journalism and traditional news organizations has hit the comic books.

  The latest issue of Superman 13 (from DC Comics) has mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent (a.k.a. Superman) getting into a heated argument with his editor, Perry White, and Lois Lane, who's now a TV news producer, over the lack of serious news.

Kent is summoned to the office of Perry White, the Planet's publisher, and given a dressing down for his lack of stories.

When Kent complains that it has been a "slow news week" he is told, by Lois Lane, now a television producer, that it is a poor excuse, prompting him to begin a rant about the state of modern journalism which ends with him quitting the paper.

"Why am I the one sounding like a grizzled ink-stained wretch who believes news should be about – I don't know – news?" he asks.

His question prompts White to respond with a devastating critique of newspaper journalism: "Times are changing and print is a dying medium.

"I don't like it but the only hope we have of delivering any news at all is to give the people what they want to read and God help me if a front-page story about some reality star gets them to pick up a paper and maybe stumble on some real news " the publisher continues.

After a second heated discussion with Morgan Edge, the paper's owner, Kent quits.

The current writer says Kent's more likely to start a blog than look for a job at another of Metropolis's media outlets.

A spokesman for DC comics confirmed the departure: "This is not the first time in DC Comics history that Clark Kent has left the Planet, and this time the resignation reflects present-day issues – the balance of journalism vs. entertainment, the role of new media, the rise of the citizen journalist, etc."

Source -  Superman quits the Daily Planet - over the state of journalism,  the Telegraph

Local TV News Gains

The latest version of the RTNDA/Hofstra annual survey of broadcast news operations in the U.S. contains good news on several fronts.  Here's some employment highlights from the first part of the study.

• Local TV news employment reached the second highest level recorded - with more than a thousand new jobs added, bringing total full time employment to 27, 653.  Total employment was higher in 2000, but there were also more stations doing local news then.  As a result, 2011 saw the highest average staffing levels for TV news in the history of the survey.
• 725 stations had newsrooms that engaged in original local news reporting for those stations as well as for an additional 242 stations that did not have an independent newsroom.
• TV newsroom employment increased 4.3%, while newspaper news employment fell 2.4%.  According to an ASNE report, newspaper staffing levels were at their lowest in the 35 years that ASNE has tracked newspaper news staffing levels.  In 2011, newsroom staffing was down 38.6% from it highest level in 1990.
• In 2011, stations averaged 5.4 replacement hires, and 1.5 new hires.
• Top job categories for new hires - producers, reporters, web
• Staffing levels continued to vary by market size - Local TV newsrooms in top-25 markets had and average staff of about 76 (68 full-time, 7.3 part-time), while in the smallest markets (151+), Local TV newsrooms had an average staff of 23 (20 full-time)

The economic news for local TV was also fairly positive.

•  About 38% of stations reported that their news budgets increased in 2011, and another 39% reported that their budgets were about the same.  Only 17% indicated that their news budgets decreased
• Almost 60% of stations reported that their local news operations returned a profit (the highest proportion since 1998).  Less than 4% indicated that news was generating a financial loss.
• Profitable news operations occurred most frequently in the middle markets. The study reported that 68% of local newsrooms in markets 51-100 were profitable, as were 61% in markets 101-150.  Only 54% of newsrooms in markets 1-50 reported that they were profitable, and just less than half of newsrooms in the smallest markets (151+) earned profits.
• The proportion of total station revenues generated by local news operations remained about the same as last year, ranging from just under 40% in Top-25 markets, to 57% in the smallest markets.

One explanation for the better employment and financial numbers was the finding that local TV newscasts increased by an average of about an hour. Local TV outlets averaged roughly 5 1/2 hours of local newscasts per day in 2011.  Most of the increase in news are in the early morning, with local news starting as early as 4 a.m.  Most news directors reported audience growth in the morning, while only 3% reported a decline in morning news audience.  Another place for expanded news was in the afternoon, often replacing Oprah or other talk shows - with stations finding that news audiences are more stable, and that they can control their own costs with better.  A number of news directors also indicated that the longer newscasts helped to generate additional advertising slots for the expected deluge of political advertising in 2012.
 I'll do the radio findings tomorrow.

Sources -  Station News Staffing Soared in 2011,  TV NewsCheck
Average time for news keeps jumping for local television,  680News.com
Full study report - 2012 TV and Radio News Staffing and Profitability Survey, Part 1