According to Nielsen (via MediaPost), here are the top news sites for November. Yahoo is on top:
NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” show yesterday was a discussion of the newspaper predicament in the US generally. I didn’t hear all of the program but it was an exploration of the problem without offering much in the way of solutions. In one sense, there may be no solutions that save the industry as it’s currently constituted.
I’m struck by how much the newspaper industry is like American manufacturing in a way. Americans have become addicted to cheap — and generally poor quality — goods made in places like China. Because of higher wages and health care costs, as well as the imperatives of the stock market and capitalism more generally, US manufacturing has largely disappeared.
Americans are reading more news than ever, but more of it is online and thus free. People fail to see the connection between their unwillingness to pay for or read print newspapers and the collapse of the industry. There are structural forces of course that have brought about this set of circumstances.
The joke, unfortunately, is on us as quality journalism all but disappears.
Am I wrong?
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This is somewhat amazing (from MediaPost yesterday):
Print continues to be the favorite medium, with 57% of CMOs reporting that they will spend the majority of their advertising and marketing budgets on print advertising. About 21% are focusing on broadcast outlets, and 19% are concentrating ad buys on the Internet, including social networking. The firm polled CMOs of retailers with more than $100 million in annual sales.
Screenwerk 
December 12, 2008 at 10:59 pm
I’m not sure I agree that quality journalism is disappearing. Instead, I think it is slowly transitioning to the web. The problem is that good journalism occupies a significantly smaller percentage of the content that is available on the web as opposed to what is available in print. Because the cost of production is so much lower on the web, it is much easier for an individual to create a blog and post sub-par content.
On the web there is so much noise and static that it is more difficult to find the quality reporting that breaks through the clutter. And that is the crux: will improved technology allow quality reporting to break through and rise to the top, or will the excess of detritus prevent that tipping point from occurring?
December 12, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Most websites not associated with a traditional media business can’t support journalists. Most — there may be some exceptions. Most news online today is repurposed from other sources (TV, newspapers, magazines) or summaries that link to those sources.
The Internet clearly features some good writing but if there were only the Internet there would be fewer journalists or writers and less quality content.