Declining Circulations = Declining Quality of News?
This past April, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported that U.S. newspaper circulations fell significantly again with the exception of the largest two big-league players, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal, which were up just half a percentage point.
Although this news isn’t all too shocking considering newspaper circulation has been on a declining trend since the 1980s, the societal implications are significant. The obvious implication is that we’re becoming an increasingly mobile, web-based culture. But it’s not that we’re digesting news, information, and entertainment online that is earth-shattering.
It’s the ‘paparazzification’ of America that’s revolutionary. Every man, woman, and teenager wielding a camera phone is potentially a ‘journalist’ in this day in age - and it’s a frantic rat race to break the news FIRST. Forget commentary and analysis or even a masters degree from Columbia or Syracuse University - there’s no time for such luxuries. News is scrappy, cut-throat, and most of all, timely - and as the blogger movement progresses, we simply can’t wait a day to edit, lay out, and send copy off to the printer.
As PR Week recently described, “In an age when thousands of blogs provide up-to-the-minute information, the public craves stories that provide more than what is available on most news Web sites.”
To compound this, the number of people creating blogs in the U.S. will reach over 35 million by 2012, roughly 16% of the Internet population.
As newspaper circulations decline and editorial staff is cut, certain types of news are falling by the wayside: metros are pulling back coverage of remote areas; school board meetings are not getting as much ink time.
And as copy editing and fact checking are reduced, another issue facing media is sloppiness. Although the early bird may catch the worm when it comes to breaking news, that worm often reads as if it’s been soaking in a bottle of tequila!
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