Internet Overtakes Newspapers As News Source (Pew Research Center for the People & the Press): I suspect advertising networks and agencies have noticed this new research: “For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the Internet for news than cite newspapers (35 percent). Television continues to be cited most frequently as a main source for national and international news, at 70 percent. Currently, 40 percent say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the Internet, up from just 24 percent in September 2007.
“For young people, however, the Internet now rivals television as a main source of national and international news. Nearly six-in-ten Americans younger than 30 (59 percent) say they get most of their national and international news online; an identical percentage cites television. In September 2007, twice as many young people said they relied mostly on television for news than mentioned the Internet (68 vs. 34 percent). The percentage of people younger than 30 citing television as a main news source has declined from 68 percent in September 2007 to 59 percent currently.”
Consumers Union Acquires Gawker Media’s Consumerist.com: “Consumers Union, the independent publisher of Consumer Reports magazine and ConsumerReports.org, has purchased Consumerist.com from Gawker Media. The popular consumer watchdog blog will operate independently of Consumer Reports publications and be the first property housed under a new nonprofit entity called Consumer Media LLC. The change in ownership will be in effect as of January 1, 2009.”
NYTimes.com on the Consumerist.com deal: “The founder and president of Gawker Media, Nick Denton, put Consumerist on sale in mid-November, the same day he announced that he was closing Valleywag, a site focused on technology in Silicon Valley. In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Denton said he was also in talks to sell Defamer, a show business gossip site, but he said he had no plans to sell other sites, which include the media sites Gawker and Jezebel.
“Mr. Denton said the troublesome advertising market had led to the sale of Consumerist. In November, he posted a prediction that online advertising — which is how he supports his sites — would decline sharply next year. ‘I think people have generally been too optimistic’ about online ads, he said Tuesday.
“In buying Consumerist, Consumers Union is seeking to attract younger readers, with the hope of eventually selling them online or print subscriptions to Consumer Reports.”
What should BarCamp NewsInnovation be? (Jason Kristufek): This sounds intriguing — a series of events to brainstorm the future of news that includes lots of geeks and uses a successful event format pioneered by geeks. Such inclusiveness is key: We’re definitely not going to find new directions and business models for news if journalists keep talking mainly to themselves.
“The plan so far is to hold regional BarCamps in Chicago, Portland and Washington, D.C., sometime in January. I have proposed other sites but have not had volunteers step forward just yet and roll with it. If you are interested, contact me. I also am proposing we hold national BarCamp NewsInnovation in Philadelphia, spearheaded by ideas floated by Sean Blanda, sometime in April.”
Time line of newspaper edition shutdowns (Steve Yelvington): Interactive time line showing when papers ditch their print editions. Created with a bunch of Drupal modules.
Climate czar left no electronic trail (The Washington Times): What do Carol Browner and Dick Cheney have in common besides running energy policy (albeit with opposite agendas)? Both eschew e-mail in order to dodge accountability, transparency and potential liability.
“Don’t bother looking for any electronic records of Carol Browner’s first stint as a federal government executive. The soon-to-be Obama administration climate czar intentionally didn’t keep many. In sworn testimony obtained by The Washington Times, Ms. Browner disclosed that she refused to use e-mail when she served as President Clinton’s Environmental Protection Agency chief in the 1990s for fear of leaving a digital trail. She also ordered her government computer hard drive wiped clean of records just before leaving office.
“‘It was a conscious decision not to use a piece of equipment or to learn how to use a piece of equipment because I didn’t want to be in a situation similar to what I had been (in) in Florida,’ she testified about government computers. The testimony referred to her days as an environmental regulator in Florida, where an e-mail message sent to her surfaced in litigation.”
Building a Network of Ethnic Citizen Journalists (Mediabistro GalleyCat): “Six Los Angeles media outlets united this week to form LA Beez — a platform built to create the ‘first-ever online network of ethnic citizen journalists.’
“Supported by Arab-American, Asian-American and Latino publications, the project aims to involve new communities in the struggling world of print publications. It’s a model that publishers could follow when reaching out to local communities with new books. As book review outlets dry up, these new kinds of sites will become more important.”
