Three-quarters of respondents in the 2010 Newsroom Barometer, chief editors and other senior newsroom personnel, said they were very optimistic or somewhat optimistic about the future of their newspapers, a figure virtually unchanged from previous years.
The editors also believe that the ongoing digital revolution will keep reshaping the newsrooms through an evolution towards multi-media integration and a "pay for information" model they foresee a multi-platform publication model, including print, and more payment for news.
The survey found:
The present: a challenging context
• Nearly half of the respondents 47 percent reported cost reductions of between 5 percent and 20 percent over the past three years. Half of the respondents also reported that staff numbers fell during the same period, though 42 percent of editors in emerging countries said their staff levels increased.
In North America, 50 percent of editors said their newsrooms suffered cost reductions and 80 percent suffered staff reductions. In Western Europe, half of respondents reports both cost reductions and staff reductions.
• Thirty-seven percent of editors said the biggest threat facing the future of their newspapers was declining readership among young people, while 24 percent cited the internet and digital media as the biggest threats. But there was a big difference among older and younger editors; older editors were more likely to cite declining youth readership (53 percent), while younger readers more frequently thought digital media was the biggest threat (34 percent).
… but grounds for a new model are discussed
• Digital revenues are already significant, providing about 14 percent of
total revenues overall, according to respondents in the survey. On average, only 16 percent of digital revenues were produced by the sale of digital content, but the editors expected that to rise in future.
Editors see these revenues growing substantially in the next 10 years and expect digital revenues to provide just over half of total revenues by 2020, according to the survey.
• Nearly half of respondents expected a "pay for information" model to be introduced in the future, but there was no consensus or clear view on what form that model would take. Editors from emerging countries favored subscription models while European editors though some form of sponsorship would be the norm. Only 35 percent of respondents thought information would continue to be mostly free, and 17 percent were unsure. Zoom on editors under 35 show their majority (42%) think the model will continue to be free though.
• Nearly nine out of 10 respondents described social media as an opportunity for newspapers, with the total rising to 95 percent among editors under 35.
The future: towards a multiplatform publication model
• Forty-four percent of respondents report working in a fully integrated multi-media newsroom in 2010, rising to 81 percent in North America. Only 38 percent of European editors in the survey reported working in integrated newsrooms, about the same as in emerging markets.
But there was a strong consensus that digital media will play an increasingly important role, with a multi-platform model dominating most newsrooms. The editors expect print to provide less than half of total circulation in five year's time, with 55 percent of readers on average accessing publications through digital media -- computers, mobiles and tablets.
• Continuing to master multi-media tools is seen as unavoidable, with video blogs, mobile news alerts, and scheduled chats notably increasing in importance.
• Seventy percent of the respondents said "opinion and analysis" will hold increasing importance for editors in coming years.
More on the Newsroom Barometer can be found in the Editors Weblog, http://www.editorsweblog.org
