Newspaper Industry Decline, News Media | featured news

Years of newsroom cutbacks have had a demonstrable impact on the quality of digital, newspaper and television news and in how consumers view that work, a study released Monday found. Nearly one-third of consumers surveyed by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism said they have abandoned a news outlet because it no longer gave them what they had counted on, either with fewer or less complete stories.

Is the newspaper business dead? John Garrett's hyperlocal chain in Texas suggests there's still life in the old medium.

... just 14 percent of those who consume news on tablets said they have paid for news content on their devices. Another 23 percent, though, pay for a print subscription that includes tablet content. So in all, about a third of tablet news consumers have paid to access news on their gadgets.

A majority of Americans don't seem to recognize the value of their local newspaper. According to a survey from the Pew Research Center, most people say they wouldn't miss local news if their newspaper no longer existed.

The Washington Post Co. on Friday reported a 50 percent drop in second-quarter earnings, with revenue continuing to plummet in the Kaplan Higher Education Unit and both the online and print operations of the newspaper division seeing declines in advertising revenue. Overall profits for the quarter that ended July 3 totaled $45.6 million ($5.74 per share), the company said, compared with $91.9 million ($10.00 per share) a year earlier. Revenue increased at The Post Co.’s television broadcasting and cable television divisions.

The newspaper industry, devastated during the recession, had another bad year in 2010.Overall, circulation for newspapers in the U.S. declined 5 percent during the six months ended Sept. 30, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations' Fas-Fax, the industry's semi-annual scorecard.

USA Today, the nation's second largest newspaper, is making the most dramatic overhaul of its staff in its 28-year history in an effort deliver stories more quickly to mobile devices and produce more coverage likely to sell advertising.The makeover outlined Thursday will result in about 130 layoffs this fall, USA Today Publisher Dave Hunke told The Associated Press. That translates into a 9 percent reduction in USA Today's work force of 1,500 employees. Hunke didn't specify which departments would be hardest hit.

After 20 months and millions of dollars in attorney fees, time is running short on Tribune Co.'s campaign to control its own destiny in Bankruptcy Court.

One of the biggest dilemmas for print and mainstream media today is how to transition from a free-for-all model to one where its users actually pay for the content they consume. Should each site enact its own paywall, forcing users to purchase a subscription to just that site? How about a pay-per-article solution, which would still require a separate login for each publication?

According to internal sources, the New York Times may soon be charging users for its online content. In a move that would bring the publication parallel to the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and the Financial Times, the New York Times seems to have settled on a system that would allow online readers to sample a certain amount of content before being prompted to subscribe.