The State of American Journalism: A report
The Project for Excellence in Journalism has released its annual report on the state of American journalism.
There's much here, and I'm still working through it. It includes a recap about credibility and circulation declines. Some of it we know:
"What was called journalism is only one part of the mix, and its role as intermediary and verifier, like the roles of other civic institutions, is weakening. We are witnessing the rise of a new and more active kind of American citizenship -- with new responsibilities that are only beginning to be considered. In this new world, we continue to believe journalism is not becoming irrelevant. The need to know what is true is all the greater, but discerning and communicating it is more difficult."
Some of which we're glad to hear:
"The rise in partisanship of news consumption and the notion that people have retreated to their ideological corners for news has been widely exaggerated."
Some of which we're working on:
"The evidence, as best as it can be collected, suggests that the newspaper industry is taking the same cautious, pay-as-you-go approach to creating the new journalism of the Web and specialty publications as it took a generation ago to investing in trying to attract new audiences to the main print edition."
More later. Editor & Publisher has a report on the report.