Digital Future: More Bad News for Newspapers

The news for newspapers is getting worse, according to the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School.

In its ninth annual "Digital Future Project" report, the Center continues to track reading and viewing trends, "watching as people move on-line and then move from modems to broadband. The project also carefully tracks those who drop off the net each year and whether they return and, if so, when and what brings them back. At the end of nine years, we also have an unparalleled view of the non-users who do not go on-line. We carefully examine why they are not users and whether they are likely to ever go on-line."

Among many other findings, its data illustrates the Web's contribution to the continuing free-fall decline of American daily print newspapers:

* The study found that as sources of information – their primary function – newspapers rank below the Internet or television. Only 56 percent of Internet users ranked newspapers as important or very important sources of information for them – a decrease from 60 percent in 2008 and below the Internet (78 percent), and television (68 percent).

* Even lower are the percentages of users who consider newspapers important as sources of entertainment for them, now considered important by 29 percent of Internet users, and down from 32 percent in 2008 – also last among principal media.

* Eighteen percent of Internet users said they stopped a subscription to a newspaper or magazine because they now get the same or related content online – down slightly from 22 percent in 2008, but nevertheless a strong indication that print newspapers can be sacrificed by a significant percentage of Internet users.

* Internet users were asked where they would go for information provided by their newspaper if the print edition ceased, 59 percent said they would read the online edition of the publication; only 37 percent said they would instead read the print edition of another newspaper.

* Twenty-two percent of users who read newspapers said they would not miss the print edition of their newspaper.

As they become more practical and affordable, e-readers and other handheld electronic devices (Kindles, iPads, etc.) are also spelling tragedy for print newspaper circulation.

Here's what Editor and Publisher has to say about it: "Newspapers Sink Below Internet and TV as Information Sources."

View highlights of the Digital Future report here (PDF).

The full Digital Future report is available for purchase here.

Boston Globe Launches Daily Video Newscast

Concurrently with its sister publication, the New York Times, launching its weekday online video news update (TimesCast), the Boston Globe this week launched its own version, called Globe Today.

They both "air" on their respective homepages during the lunch hour (ET), and both provide a sort of front-page headline service. But there the similarities end.

The TimesCast is close to seven minutes, and takes you inside the newspaper's newsroom and lets you watch and hear the editorial process unfold. You get an inside peek into how a handful of reporters and editors are tackling developing stories, with context and perspective.

The 1.5-minute Boston.com effort, however, is nothing more than a poor man's online newscast -- a solo anchor sitting at a desk in front of a cheesy illustrated cityscape, reading a Teleprompter, intercut with still images and a tiny smattering of video. In other words, it's made to look like scaled-down TV, rather than leveraging either the intimate or in-depth attributes of Web viewing.

Globe managing editor Caleb Solomon told Editor and Publisher: "This is absolutely a new way for us to deliver journalism," which may be true, but nothing to brag about. Then he goes on to say: "It's the next step in video journalism." Which, for all our sakes, we fervently hope is not true.

Boston.com built out a studio and bought equipment -- an investment that cost in the "low thousands," according to Solomon. "A lot of people are taking news in a lot of different ways, and the growth of video is astronomical right now. It's an easy way to take in the top headlines of the day," he added.

Translation: they took the cheap and easy route, not the innovative or forward-looking one. TimesCast represents an investment; Globe Today smacks of the least they could get away with. (And where exactly are those "low thousands" being spent? Technologically, it features nothing that isn't routinely accomplished on a $20 Webcam in a dorm room.)

Globe Today's most egregious sin is that neither the video nor the accompanying text include the date! As the videos are archived on the same Web page after their initial airing, viewers have no way of seeking or sorting out what happened when.

One function of the Boston.com video player that we do like is that it enables you to search any word in the video -- and then takes you to that point in the video where the word is spoken (accompanied by an adjacent transcript of that section).

Overall, though, we can't help but wonder if there's a significant audience that will be well served by having someone basically look into the camera and read them headlines of top stories that they can more quickly scan visually in print on the homepage? While the TimesCast is at least an attempt to add another layer of comprehension to the day's events, we're not sure we see the value of Globe Today.

Take a look (below) and tell us if you're likely to follow a mid-day video newscast -- and, if so, which style best serves your needs and tastes. We look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Bookmark This: Journalism About Journalism

If you're looking for journalism about journalism, Alltop's "Journalism" page is your one-stop destination, with links to the top 5 daily stories at nearly 100 top online publications and blogs that cover every aspect of journalism.

From the Columbia Journalism Review to Editor & Publisher and Poynter, they're all here.

Mouse over each link, and an internal popup provides the first few sentences of what awaits at the destination, enabling you to better decide if it's worth clicking.

If that selection is still too overwhelming you can slim it down for your own use, by creating your own MyAlltop page. That, in fact, is Alltop's strength -- selectively aggregating quality content, and providing a self-controlled filter to prevent information overload.

MyAlltop enables you to create a “personal, online magazine rack” of your favorite websites and blogs. You can create a personal collection from over 32,000 information sources—if you’re interested in something, we probably have it covered.

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We’ve subscribed to thousands of sources to provide “aggregation without aggravation.” To be clear, Alltop pages are starting points -- they are not destinations per se. Ultimately, our goal is to enhance your online reading by displaying stories from sources that you’re already visiting plus helping you discover sources that you didn’t know existed. In a nutshell, Alltop is an information filter to help you find your nuggets of gold.

If you're looking for the Web's best videojournalism, then of course KobreGuide is still your single best online destination.

EPpy Awarded to San Jose Mercury News Video

Congrats to the San Jose Mercury News for winning Editor & Publisher's prestigious EPpy award for "Best Use of Video in a Media-Affiliated Website." Last year the paper won an Emmy for its online video.

Mercury News videos included in the award are "Left Behind" by Dai Sugano and "The Chance to Break Free," by Sugano and John Boudreau, both based on reporting out of India; video profiles of 20 local Olympians who participated in the 2008 Games in Beijing, by Jim Gensheimer and LiPo Ching; and "Housing Crisis," a look at three families and a subdivision beset by subprime mortgages and the housing bubble gone bust, by photojournalist David Barreda and writer Julia Prodis Sulek.

The winning Mercury News videos can be seen here.

"Left Behind" is featured on the San Jose Mercury News channel on KobreGuide.com .