2005 Annual Report - Online Newsroom Investment

The Pew survey also suggests that online journalists detect increasing influence of advertisers on the kinds of content they produce, perhaps more so than in other media. Online journalists were more than twice as likely as the mainstream press to say they have been pressured to do a story because it related to an owner, advertiser, or sponsor - 35%, versus 15% of national mainstream journalists.¹¹

When asked to name the most important problem facing journalism today, online journalists most frequently say the quality of the coverage (32%) and economic and business pressures (32%). Among national mainstream journalists, 41% cite the quality of coverage and 30% the economics.¹²

Most Important Problem Facing Journalism Today, 2004

Survey of national and local journalists

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Source: The Project for Excellence in Journalism/Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, survey of online, print and broadcast journalists, March-April 2004.

Qu: What do you feel is the most important problem facing journalism today?

When we break down the 32% of online journalists who say the most important problem is economic or business pressures, 10% say declining audience or attracting an audience, 7% say lack of resources and financial cutbacks, 9% say too much of a bottom-line emphasis. Another 6% identify corporate ownership and consolidation, and 6% indicate staffing problems or putting ratings ahead of quality.

More generally, online journalists feel many of the same bottom-line pressures as those in the mainstream press. In the Pew survey, 63% of online journalists said bottom-line pressure is hurting journalism while 34% said it is just changing it. Those numbers compare quite closely to national mainstream journalists: 66% hurting and 29% just changing.¹³

One other finding is worth mentioning as well. There may be growing acceptance of the value of online journalism in traditional newsrooms, instead of fear that the new medium is a bastion of rumor and lesser standards. Fully 60% of national mainstream journalists say "the emergence of the Internet has made journalism better." That is nearly identical to the 63% of online journalists who feel that way.¹⁴