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Creative Destruction
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Author: Thomas E. Patterson
Author Organization: A report from the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Author Organization URL: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/presspol/carnegie_home.htm
Publication Date: Aug 1, 2007
Publication File: Creative Destruction Web
This report examines trends in Internet-based news traffic for the
purpose of peering into the future of news in America. In light of the
continuing migration of Americans to online news, the evolving nature
of Web technology, and the limits of our survey of websites, our
assessments are necessarily speculative. Nevertheless, our examination
of traffic to 160 news-based websites over a yearlong period revealed
noteworthy patterns. The websites of national “brand-name” newspapers
are growing, whereas those of many local papers are not. The sites of
national “brand-name” television networks are also experiencing
increased traffic, as are those of local television and radio stations.
However, sites connected
to traditional news organizations are growing more slowly than those of
the major nontraditional news disseminators, including aggregators,
bloggers, and search engines and service providers.
Our evidence suggests that the Internet is redistributing the news audience in a way that is pressuring some traditional news organizations. Product substitution through the Web is particularly threatening to the print media, whose initial advantage as a “first mover” has all but disappeared. The Internet is also a larger threat to local news organizations than to those that are nationally known. Because the Web reduces the influence of geography on people’s choice of a news source, it inherently favors “brand names”—those relatively few news organizations that readily come to mind to Americans everywhere when they go to the Internet for news. Although the sites of nontraditional news organizations are a threat to traditional news organizations, the latter have strengths they can leverage on the Web. Local news organizations are “brand names” within their communities, which can be used to their advantage. Their offline reach can also be used to drive traffic to their sites. Most important, they have a product—the news—that people want. Ironically, some news organizations do not feature the day’s news prominently on their websites, forgoing their natural advantage.
Filed Under: carnegie-knight initiative on the future of journalism education
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