17/05/2009

Newspapers have record numbers of readers

CARLOS EDUARDO LINS DA SILVA
ombudsman@uol.com.br

Data from the American media show that the challenge facing newspapers is not audience, but rather its economic model

American newspapers never had so many readers as they do now. This assertion seems counter-intuitive for those who follow the avalanche of bad news about the conditions for survival of many of the best printed newspapers in the United States.

But it's not. At the 29th meeting of the Organization of News Ombudsmen (ONO), which has about 100 journalists as members who perform this job around the world (from Australia to Turkey) and which was held between Sunday and Thursday in Washington, Tom Rosentiel explained the reasons. He is director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which since 2004 has published on the Internet a detailed annual report about the situation in the media, "The State of the News Media" (see below the link for the chapter about newspapers). The data show that the public does not reject the model of "traditional" newspapers. To the contrary. "The challenge of newspaper does not come from the audience, it comes from the model of economic sustainability," Rosentiel asserted.

Despite the price of printed newspapers for the consumer having risen much over the past five years, the decrease in circulation has been comparatively small. And their electronic versions have increased their audience much more than have Internet media (27% against 7% in 2008).

"The Washington Post," for example, in 1999 sold 786,000 printed copies; now, it sells 665,000, but its site has 9.4 million unique visitors per month

The problem is that the advertising income for printed editions fell dramatically (16% in 2008 compared with 2007) while electronic editions grew minimally. It's clear that the financial crisis contributed to aggravate the situation more recently. But these trends have already been consistent for a long time. Non-journalistic sites have taken away classified ads from newspapers; pay TV has taken a good part of advertising in general. And advertisers still are not convinced of the efficiency of ads on the computer screen.

Rosentiel believes that the only solution is to change the economic model. And he does not agree with the proposals most talked about at the moment (for newspapers to charge a small fee for access to every story or be supported by universities or foundations).

He believes that there are other more creative ways to do things until useful information once again creates sufficient revenues to maintain the expensive operations of producing high-quality journalism.

To find it, journalists and companies must be prepared to change many values, practices and processes to which they are accustomed.

If they do this, it will be possible to avoid the tears shown at the end of the movie below, adapting the newspaper's newsroom, which honors good journalism as if it were on its deathbed.

Slow, improvised coverage of the tragedy

In December, the country was moved by the tragedy of floods in the southern state of Santa Catarina. This month, the same thing happened again, this time in the North and Northeast.

Folha did not perform preventive journalism as it should have done in any of these situations. It limited itself to reacting to the facts and registering the events.

But in the current case, in the North and Northeast, despite causing more victims and homelessness than the previous one, the newspaper has devoted a lot less space and attention.

Various readers wrote to complain and question if the lack of journalistic vigor reflects "an apparent 'regional oriented' indifference concerning the drama in the (impoverished) North/Northeast," as one of them, Rodrigo Pisictelli, asked. I trust that is not the case, but the suspicion is already serious.

On Saturday, the newspaper, in an editorial titled "Slow and improvised," criticized the behavior of authorities in response to the effects of the rain.

But its own coverage also has left the problems of about 1 million Brazilians with a lot to be desired.

Except for pungent photos on the front page, what is shown is that the topic is not among the newsroom's priorities, which is a mistake and a shame.

To read

"The State of the News Media Newspapers," by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism

To see

"State of Play," by Kevin McDonald, with Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck, with previews starting in Brazil on June 12, 2009

What Folha did right...

Sri Lanka

After a shaky start, following the humanitarian crisis in the former Ceylon found the right tone

Bankers and Justice

Report on Saturday about the seminar with the presence of 42 labor judges paid for by the Brazilian Banking Federation has great relevance

... And where it did badly

Name of the flu

The flu has been identified four different ways, without standardization by the newspaper, despite definition by the World Health Organization

Early advertising

A short note on Thursday about the decision of the Supreme Court buried exaggerated coverage in February of the allegation against the president concerning political advertising outside its allowed time period in a meeting with mayors

Press law

Defenders of the idea that there should be no specific press law get no space on the op-ed page

Who is letters to the editor?

Letters

from readers 40

from people in the news 12

Centimeters

from readers 301

from people in the news 215

*from May 9 to May 15, 2009

Topics most commented during the week

1. Soccer topics

2. Vegetarianism

3. College entrance exam

Worth remembering

Cases that need to be looked at again

The death of police officer Sérgio Narciso and rancher José Canário 20 years ago in the state of Espirito Santo go unpunished. What will happen to this case?

-Translation by John Wright