NUMBERS: Estimated loss of U.S. journalism -- $1.6 billion -- 110,000 enterprise stories?

[Bill Densmore]

To JTM Listers:

Just running a few more numbers against Rick Edmonds fine estimating today
at Poynter Online about the loss of reporting/editing staff . . .

I'm guessing that if 80% of that $1.6 billion is newsroom salaries, and
the average newsroom salary, loaded with benefits, was $60,000 (probably a
tad high), then that's over 21,000 reporters and editors, nationwide, gone
from the system.

Now if you assume that even **one tenth** of those people were doing
something akin to enterprise reporting, and that each of them turned out
one pretty decent enterprise piece a week, at least, that would be 110,000
enterprise stories a year that aren't being written.

Now do you think it is possible that **one tenth** of those 110,000
stories righted a wrong, shone light on an illegal or unfair practice,
explained an important public issue that caused a change in policy, or
just made a community work better?

It makes me think of Jimmy Stewart in "It's a Wonderful Life." How can we
tell the story about those 10,000 stories that weren't written, that would
have made the nation a better place each in their own way? Where is
Clarence, the angel?

What is the toll on participatory democracy of that loss? Will it be
replaced by data-driven reporting by the folks left?

We have to figure out a way to tell this story -- the story of
Journalism That Matters, and then connect it to action -- to that
"Wonderful Life" coming together that saves George Bailey and his Building
and Loan. Who is the Frank Capra amid us who can tell that story?

-- bill densmore

RICK'S PIECE:
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=123&aid=171536

PoynterOnline
Oct. 12, 2009

Shrinking Newspapers Have Created $1.6 Billion News Deficit

Posted by Rick Edmonds at 6:39 AM on Oct. 12, 2009

Nearly everyone agrees now on the basic narrative of the news business in
transition. Old media -- newspapers especially -- are contracting
drastically. They don't field the news effort they did in better times and
probably never will again. On the other hand, alternative digital startups
are exploding, and may in time plug much of the gap.

It occurs to me, though, that there has been very little effort to
quantify what has been lost, then compare that figure to the scale of the
best of new media.

This is a first shot at those numbers.

By my back-of-the-envelope calculations (see below), newspapers have, just
in the last several years, reduced their spending on journalism by about
$1.6 billion annually.

-- SNIP --

[Barry Parr]

Bill's calculations below assume that enterprise and investigative journalism will be affected equally with other "journalism". In other words, that the distribution of cuts would be random.

If the mainstream press were as committed to journalism and as concerned about the collapse of their watchdog function as they claim to be, wouldn't the impact be significantly less?

Wouldn't they cut time from covering sports, rewriting press releases, reviewing tv shows, and editing wire copy instead?

[Apologies if I missed a similar response, the lists have been unusually active today]

bp

--
Barry Parr

http://coastsider.com
http://mediasavvy.com
http://twitter.com/barryparr

650.523.4929
-----------------------------------------

[Barry Parr]

Fair enough.  But let's be clear on the regard with with big newspaper companies hold their public trust and their real value to the community.  They're holding real reporting hostage to a lessening of antitrust restrictions on their ability to hook up with competitors and squeeze out competition from startups.

OK, that's not new information. If it is, you should re-read your Liebling.

But it's also bad business.  Most of what the big dailies churn out has no reason to exist because its already available online. Why should I read Microsoft's latest press release with added commentary by Rob Enderle in the Mercury News when I can go to the source?  How about wire stories?  Really? If it's cheap and easy, it's already on the Internet.

If the dailies can't figure out how to maintain their production of quality reporting without re-writing antitrust law, they won't be missed as much as some people think.

bp

--
Barry Parr

http://coastsider.com
http://mediasavvy.com
http://twitter.com/barryparr

650.523.4929
-----------------------------------------

On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 8:41 AM, Josh Wilson <edi...@newsdesk.org> wrote:

Barry: I wonder if we can say, without excessive cynicism, that "sports, press releases, reviewing TV shows and editing wire copy" are cheap, easy and crowd-appeasing, while watchdog journalism is expensive, slow and lacks the immediate gratification of sports-n-tube coverage?

If so, then rewriting press releases and editing wire copy makes sense as an affordable way for a tight-budgeted commercial news outlet to process third-party content. 

Maybe it's not optimal in terms of local watchdog coverage. But it also makes clear the potentially growing role for third-party news nonprofits providing that watchdog coverage. 

In fact, that's precisely what we want to do with News You Might Have Missed; to that end, we'll be hiring an editor in the next few weeks, w/ support from Ethics & Excellence in Journalism, and going daily not long afterwards. Stay tuned for updates ... 

jw

[Josh Wilson]

Barry: I wonder if we can say, without excessive cynicism, that "sports, press releases, reviewing TV shows and editing wire copy" are cheap, easy and crowd-appeasing, while watchdog journalism is expensive, slow and lacks the immediate gratification of sports-n-tube coverage?

If so, then rewriting press releases and editing wire copy makes sense as an affordable way for a tight-budgeted commercial news outlet to process third-party content. 

Maybe it's not optimal in terms of local watchdog coverage. But it also makes clear the potentially growing role for third-party news nonprofits providing that watchdog coverage. 

In fact, that's precisely what we want to do with News You Might Have Missed; to that end, we'll be hiring an editor in the next few weeks, w/ support from Ethics & Excellence in Journalism, and going daily not long afterwards. Stay tuned for updates ... 

jw

On Oct 13, 2009, at 3:30 PM, Barry Parr wrote: