Comments on: Niche outlets replace newspapers in Washington

By: Web and Tech Links: 22 July 2009

Web and Tech Links: 22 July 2009 — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:10:54 +0000

[...] Lab: Niche outlets replace newspapers in Washington *counting [...]

By: Senate Press Corps « Media & Politics in the United States

Senate Press Corps « Media & Politics in the United States — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:35:57 +0000

[...] “The next time someone tell yous that the news industry’s financial crisis is hurting coverage of the federal government, point them to this chart.” [...]

By: Dobra wiadomość dla dziennikarzy, zła dla nowych pseudo mediów « Brzytwą po oczach

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:15:09 +0000

[...] obrazuje to powyższy wykres przygotowany przez The Nieman Journalism Lab, na podstawie danych The Project for Excellence in Journalism, pokazujący jak na przestrzeni [...]

By: Zachary M. Seward

Zachary M. Seward — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:49:36 +0000

There is certainly lots of crucial information not captured in this chart, and I don't mean to suggest that this data is anywhere near sufficient to make a conclusion about the robustness of Washington news coverage. But I do think it's a good retort to those who claim that just because newspapers have vacated DC, the federal government isn't getting covered. In any event, PEJ has more in its February report about the news organizations that comprise the "niche" category, which is just their term for "other." Another interesting datapoint from PEJ is that Washington-based foreign correspondents have increased from ~800 in 1994 to 1,490 in 2008. —Zach

By: Martin Langeveld

Martin Langeveld — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:59:45 +0000

It would be interesting to see this same analysis for the White House press corps and other measurable entities.

As Jim says we don’t know who the niche contingent is, or whether they are as full-time as the newspaper types they’ve replaced. On the other hand, the departed newspaper reporters probably worked for single markets or small groups while the niche sites tend to be online and broadly accessible (as is the reporting from the remaining print reporters) — so arguably there is more coverage available to more people than there ever was.

By: Jim Naughton

Jim Naughton — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:43:27 +0000

Neither the chart nor the PEJ summary demonstrates, by itself, robust coverage of the federal government. It would be useful to know the identities of the “niche” journalists, their media outlets and their audiences. Sorry, but I’m not comforted by the chart.