David Zeeck at TheNewsTribune.com challenges NBC anchor Brian Williams' recent comments about the "dying" newspaper industry… He examines stats and trends, and points out that while paid circ is down for newspapers (though not as dramatically as Williams asserted), total readership (print and Web combined) is actually growing. Meanwhile, "Over a 10-year period, from 1997 to 2007, ratings for network news dropped 34 percent and share 33 percent, November to November, according to Nielsen data. In the same period daily newspaper readership declined a relatively modest 16.9 percent, according to Simmons Market Research Bureau and Scarborough Research." Zeeck concludes: "If anybody’s getting killed in the 21st-century media market, it’s TV news, not newspapers." Not that I'd want to see either medium get killed. And Zeeck's column doesn't weigh in potential digital strategy for increasing audience for network news, while he did mention that for newspapers. Both have great value for the American people. And both have opportunities as the media landscape reshapes itself in the digital era.
Tags: newspapers
