Journalism at a crossroads: Few click on ads or want to pay |
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Journalism at a crossroads: Few click on ads or want to pay
Can newspapers stay afloat? Flickr photo via Inju.
The Pew Project for American Journalism released its annual "State of the News Media" report for 2010, and things don't look pretty if you're trying to earn a buck off news content. According to the comprehensive report, ad revenue fell by more than 20 percent at newspapers, local TV and radio stations last year. And what about the rise of online journalism -- the bloggers, Tweeters and other content creators who are trying to fill a void left by the traditional media?
Pew notes that even with all of the "the invention and energy" occurring with new media offerings, they still amount to "a small fraction of what has been lost."
"Unless some system of financing the production of content is developed, it is difficult to see how reportorial journalism will not continue to shrink, regardless of the potential tools offered by technology," the authors write.
The report also casts doubt on online advertising as a potential savior of the industry, citing a study which shows that 79 percent of news consumers rarely if ever click on an online ad. Furthermore, the online ad business dipped in 2009 for the first time since 2002, down 4.6 percent to $22.4 billion.
Those looking to pay walls as a way to drive revenue also will be disappointed by the results of the Pew report. The authors wrote that only 7 percent of consumers would pay for content:
"The reality strongly suggests, though, that people do not want to pay and that the flow of information is just too open to try to control content in that manner – like trying to force butterflies back into their cocoons. In a new survey released as part of this report, just 7% of Americans express any willingness to pay for news content. Instead, large majorities said they would look for content elsewhere if their favorite site put up a pay wall. "
So, if news consumers aren't clicking on ads and they don't want to pay, what's the solution? That's the conundrum facing the industry in 2010. Here are some charts from the report showing some of the challenges facing the industry.
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