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The good news for the news industry: Smart phones, tablet computers and social networks are bringing people back to traditional print and broadcast news outlets.
The bad news: The firms behind those technologies, especially Google and Facebook, may be better poised to make money from news stories than the companies that gather the information, according to a study released today.
The annual Project for Excellence in Journalism report, which examines emerging trends that represent both "a threat and a promise" for the news industry, even suggests that profitable tech companies like Facebook might one day buy a struggling newspaper to ensure the flow of stories.
"Facebook and other social media are additional distributors of content, but they are also rivals for advertising revenues," the report said. "The new tablets, smart phones and other mobile technologies represent new ways to reach audiences, but they are also a new wave of new technology that news companies need to react to."
Newspaper and broadcasting companies have struggled for more than a decade to deal with declining revenue from a shift of eyeballs and advertising dollars to the Internet.
"The new wave threatens to shift the media landscape out from under them once more," the report said.
About 23 percent of all U.S. adults now get their news on at least two devices, a combination of smart phones, tablets and PCs, according to the project, which is part of the Pew Research Center in Washington.
About 36 percent prefer to go directly to a news organization's site, while 32 percent access news through search engines and 29 percent use an aggregation service like Flipboard.
More than half of smart-phone and tablet owners now use those devices to get news, compared to 32 percent of those who own laptops or desktops.
That trend is significant because about 44 percent of adults now own a smart phone, while tablet ownership, driven by Apple's market-leading iPad, has grown by about 50 percent to about 18 percent of adults since last summer.
The report is based on interviews with 3,016 people in January, but also examines data from comScore, Localytics and the Newspaper Association of America.
The data suggest mobile-device owners spend more time on news stories, a contrast with the more quick-hit news consumption style popularized by online-only sites.
"Not only are people going to traditional sources, but they are reading in depth," Rosenstiel said.
Moreover, mobile devices are bringing back younger audiences, a demographic that seemed lost to older news organizations.
"In the early '90s, there was a real question whether younger people would consume news at all," Rosenstiel said. "Technology has brought in new audiences that would never have been there otherwise."
The audience for news websites grew by 17 percent in the past year, and network TV news audiences grew for the first time in a decade.
But only online sites and cable TV experienced ad revenue gains. Revenue was flat for magazines and down 3.7 percent for network TV news, 6.7 percent for local news and 7.6 percent for newspapers.
And although more than 100 newspapers this year are expected to join 150 dailies already trying to generate revenue from some form of digital subscriptions, the industry can't compensate enough for the 43 percent decline in print circulation and advertising revenue since 2000.
Meanwhile, Rosenstiel said, 68 percent of online advertising last year was controlled by five tech companies - Google, Facebook, AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo - "and that number doesn't even include the power of Apple and Amazon."
The report even suggests that in the future, a tech company like Facebook might want to buy a traditional media outlet like the Washington Post to protect the flow of news that helps them build traffic.
Facebook, for example, has forged partnerships with companies like the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal to use a Social Reader app to direct readers to stories, while YouTube is paying Reuters to produce original news shows. And earlier this month, former Facebook executive and co-founder Chris Hughes bought New Republic magazine.
"The technology has become more friendly for these news organizations in the last year, and that's only going to grow," Rosenstiel said. "The question is, can the news industry this time around take better advantage of the opportunity than it did in the first 15 years of the digital age?"
The bad news: The firms behind those technologies, especially Google and Facebook, may be better poised to make money from news stories than the companies that gather the information, according to a study released today.
The annual Project for Excellence in Journalism report, which examines emerging trends that represent both "a threat and a promise" for the news industry, even suggests that profitable tech companies like Facebook might one day buy a struggling newspaper to ensure the flow of stories.
"Facebook and other social media are additional distributors of content, but they are also rivals for advertising revenues," the report said. "The new tablets, smart phones and other mobile technologies represent new ways to reach audiences, but they are also a new wave of new technology that news companies need to react to."
Newspaper and broadcasting companies have struggled for more than a decade to deal with declining revenue from a shift of eyeballs and advertising dollars to the Internet.
"The new wave threatens to shift the media landscape out from under them once more," the report said.
About 23 percent of all U.S. adults now get their news on at least two devices, a combination of smart phones, tablets and PCs, according to the project, which is part of the Pew Research Center in Washington.
About 36 percent prefer to go directly to a news organization's site, while 32 percent access news through search engines and 29 percent use an aggregation service like Flipboard.
More than half of smart-phone and tablet owners now use those devices to get news, compared to 32 percent of those who own laptops or desktops.
That trend is significant because about 44 percent of adults now own a smart phone, while tablet ownership, driven by Apple's market-leading iPad, has grown by about 50 percent to about 18 percent of adults since last summer.
New opportunity
"The dramatic rise in use of mobile devices is proving to be a boon to the news industry, and that is something of a surprise," said project director Tom Rosenstiel. "It really represents a new opportunity for news organizations."The report is based on interviews with 3,016 people in January, but also examines data from comScore, Localytics and the Newspaper Association of America.
The data suggest mobile-device owners spend more time on news stories, a contrast with the more quick-hit news consumption style popularized by online-only sites.
"Not only are people going to traditional sources, but they are reading in depth," Rosenstiel said.
Moreover, mobile devices are bringing back younger audiences, a demographic that seemed lost to older news organizations.
"In the early '90s, there was a real question whether younger people would consume news at all," Rosenstiel said. "Technology has brought in new audiences that would never have been there otherwise."
The audience for news websites grew by 17 percent in the past year, and network TV news audiences grew for the first time in a decade.
But only online sites and cable TV experienced ad revenue gains. Revenue was flat for magazines and down 3.7 percent for network TV news, 6.7 percent for local news and 7.6 percent for newspapers.
And although more than 100 newspapers this year are expected to join 150 dailies already trying to generate revenue from some form of digital subscriptions, the industry can't compensate enough for the 43 percent decline in print circulation and advertising revenue since 2000.
Meanwhile, Rosenstiel said, 68 percent of online advertising last year was controlled by five tech companies - Google, Facebook, AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo - "and that number doesn't even include the power of Apple and Amazon."
The report even suggests that in the future, a tech company like Facebook might want to buy a traditional media outlet like the Washington Post to protect the flow of news that helps them build traffic.
Growing closer
Rosenstiel said his organization wasn't trying to suggest such a deal, but noted that tech and news companies are already growing closer.Facebook, for example, has forged partnerships with companies like the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal to use a Social Reader app to direct readers to stories, while YouTube is paying Reuters to produce original news shows. And earlier this month, former Facebook executive and co-founder Chris Hughes bought New Republic magazine.
"The technology has become more friendly for these news organizations in the last year, and that's only going to grow," Rosenstiel said. "The question is, can the news industry this time around take better advantage of the opportunity than it did in the first 15 years of the digital age?"
Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. bevangelista@sfchronicle.com
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/18/BU081NLMUS.DTL#ixzz1pY87Wq9L
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