Mass Media

1
Mass Media Society

• Chapter 3 Newspapers

2
Newspaper Industry Dimensions

• 1 of 3 people in the U.S. reads a newspaper every
  day
• Medium choice for advertising
• 2003 44.1 billion dailies
• 2003 42.1 billion TV stations

3
Content Diversity Depth

• Nationally, no broadcast organization comes close
  to the of stories or depth of 2 major national
  newspapers Wall Street Journal and USA Today
• Rich mix of content
• You dont have to wait for what you want
• Page 51 Media Databank largest US papers
• Challenges competing media, lifestyle shifts,
  new technology

4
Trend Towards Chains

• Newspaper Chains company that owns several
  newspapers created 1st by Hearst
• Gannett leading US newspaper chain with 90
  dailies launched USA Today
• Page 53 Media Databank Newspaper Chains

5
Assessing Chain Ownership

• Journalistic emphasis
• Balanced emphasis
• Profit emphasis
• Absentee ownership
• Transient membership
• Weak entry-level salaries
• High newsroom turnover

6
National Dailies

• USA Today 1981 Gannett created by Allen
  Neuharth
• Single-copy bulk sales, strong visual medium
• Wall Street Journal 1889 created by Dow and
  Jones Barney Kilgore
• Plain English, details re government, everything
  relating to making a living, gray
• Christian Science Monitor 1908 Mary Baker
  Eddy
• Solution-oriented journalism, not preachy, relies
  on church subsidies, challenged by finances
  currently

7
New York Times

• Newspaper of Record - Loved by librarians
• Important research source monthly annual
  indexes that lists every story
• Most respected US hometown daily
• Founded in 1851, gained reputation from
• Tweed Scandal
• Sullivan Libel Case
• Pentagon Papers
• Jayson Blair

8
National Edition

• Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Christian Science
  Monitor YES edited for readers nationwide
• New York Times, Los Angeles Times some
  characteristics of but NO

9
Hometown Newspapers

• 1570 US daily newspapers
• Metropolitan dailies extensive regional
  circulation
• Examples Washington Post, Los Angeles Times
• Hometown dailies locally oriented newspapers

10
Challenges for Daily Newspapers

• Circulation cost-cutting thru technology,
  staffs and papers are trimmed
• Sunday Editions advertising flocked to Sundays
  but we dont do lazy Sundays any more
• Advertising free-standing inserts
• Web Transition advertising online
• Clustering buying newspapers with adjoining
  circulations

11
Weekly Newspapers

• Community Weeklies telephone book journalism
  cover more locally than a metro is able to
• Shoppers an advertising paper without news
  all advertising

12
Alternative Minority Newspapers

• Counterculture newspapers
• Village Voice Norman Miller Don Wolf 1955
• Challenge and/or defy mainstream values
• Gay newspapers
• Advocate Jim Michaels 1967
• Most are free
• Black Newspapers
• Freedoms Journal John Russwurm Samuel
  Cornish 1827 North Star Frederick Douglass
  1847
• Started as crusade for causes today more
  moderate
• Foreign-language Newspapers
• Today, mostly Spanish question of disappearance
  even with higher immigration statistics

13
Evaluating Newspapers

• Circulation Penetration - of people that a
  newspaper reaches in its circulation area
• Quality Indicators annual rankings, awards,
  news hole, content, staff, management
• Page 74 Media Databank Best US papers