Newsroom Cutbacks Are Hurting Journalism, Study Shows

The tone of the Pew Research Center's latest annual State of the Media report, released Monday, is grim. The study found that U.S. newsrooms have cut their staff by about 30% since highs reached in 2000, and journalism is suffering as a result. At the same time, companies and other organizations are seizing opportunities to deliver their messages straight to the public — rather than through the media — with mixed results.

Fewer Resources = Poorer Quality Journalism

There are now less than 40,000 full-time employees working in news, the lowest since 1978, Pew found. The quality of journalism is consequently suffering, both on a national and local level. At Fox, CNN and MSNBC, where annual revenues continue to grow (albeit more slowly than in years past), daytime coverage of live events fell 30% from 2007, while interview segments — which don't require a full crew and correspondent, and can be scheduled ahead of time — rose 31%. CNN has cut the number of produced story segments in half. On local TV stations, story lengths have diminished, while easy-to-deliver topics such as sports, weather and traffic have grown to account for 40% of content.