Past, Present and Future (?) of Print Newspapers

We spent an important part of our New Media Class analyzing current transition from print journalism to new media practices. Two enlightening articles helped us introduce the main question: Are we facing the death of print Newspapers?

Eric Alterman and Jon Talton analyze trends in circulation an advertising for news corporations. The first one points out if American newspapers are really out of print; the second, questioning what's really wrong with newspapers.

State of the Blogosphere 2008

Technorati's State of  Blogosphere 2008 report analyzes the trends and themes of blogging. In this fourth study, it goes beyond the numbers of the Technorati index. It is the first time bloggers were surveyed directly, so we can know in depth details of blogging and bloggers.

It is commonly a male activity (two-thirds of the total), mostly related to young people (50% are 18-34 years old) and more affluent and educated than the general population (70% have college degrees). By Continent, North America gets 48% of the total production, followed by Europe (27%), Asia (13%), South America (7%), Australia (3%) and Africa (1%).

Bloggers are not a homogenous group: four out of five are personal bloggers who blog about topics of personal interest, 46% are professional bloggers and 17% are corporate bloggers.

There is a general sense that blogs are being taken more seriously as information sources. 37% of bloggers have been quoted in traditional media based on a blog post. Half of them believe that blogs will be a primary source for news and entertainment in the next five years.

Previous reports can be revised in their archives.

New Tool for Journalists: ReportingOn

The Knight Digital Media Center has recently posted a comment about a new tool useful for journalists. ReportingOn is a web site where reporters can get online together to pool expertise. Anyone working on a journalism project can post a message of up to 140 words. As other sites like twitter or wired journalists, this project offers the possibility of tagging, sharing, asking and commenting topics of interest.

Mark Comerford, a journalist located in Sweden is listed with Markmedia, a blog on journalism and the changes being brought by digitalization, new forms of journalism, non-corporate funding and investigative journalism.