Between the Lines February 2024
In this issue of Between The Lines:
🗞️ Scott Sutherland takes a look at how the decline in the number of news outlets, locally and nationally, and the corresponding decline in news gatherers and reporters is creating an information crisis in America.
🎙️ In our Spotlight, Sam Whitmore gives his take on the future of journalism and how communications need to adapt to these changes.
💡 In this month’s Light Bulb Moment, we asked some of our favorite and most respected colleagues to share their thoughts on how they are helping clients navigate today's media landscape.
Will It Take Large Public Investment To Stem Accelerating Crisis in Decline of News?
The accelerating decline in the number of news outlets, locally and nationally, and the corresponding decline in news gatherers and reporters is creating an information crisis in America. This crisis also corresponds with and is encouraged by the soaring growth in audience and usage of social media, which is rife with conspiracy theories and outright misinformation.
Media outlets have experimented with a number of different revenue sources that might stem the tide of decline. Subscription models, which initially showed some promise, are now falling by the wayside as publishers discover the increase in revenue in charging for news is offset by declines in advertising to a much smaller audience. New experiments with loyalty models, membership models and even micropayments are showing some positive signs, but they may not deliver results quickly enough to stem the continued rapid decline in new outlets and news reporters.
It’s probably past time we look at a funding model that is by far the most controversial but offers the broadest and deepest resources for the response necessary to this growing news crisis. That funding model involves using public dollars to invest in objective news gathering.
One of the broadest and grandest public investments in news gathering is getting underway this year in California, which has the nation’s largest population and its most startling news desert. Two California counties no longer have any kind of newspaper at all. From 2004 to 2019, the state has seen a 24 percent overall decline in the number of functioning newspapers.
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 179, which dedicated $25 million to funding local reporting in places in the state that are underserved and underrepresented by the media. CA Bill 179 represents the largest state-level public investment in local news in history. The funds will be distributed through a fellowship program housed at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. The legislation seeks to put 120 journalists in the field for three-year terms by 2025.
Other states almost launching or already implementing experiments designed to support local journalism include New Jersey, New Mexico, Illinois, Washington, Wisconsin and others.
While states are using public resources to meet the sharpening decline in local news reporting and publishing, the news crisis has not gone unnoticed in Washington, DC. The Future of Local News Act, introduced by Democrats in May of 2021, aimed to create a 13-member panel to study the complex landscape and recommend ways Congress can act. The Local Journalism Sustainability Act would have allocated $1 billion for local journalism. However, it died when the House failed to pass the Build Back Better Act.
The provisions within the Act would have supported local journalism in three key ways: a $250 maximum tax credit for individuals paying for a local news subscription, a tax credit of up to $5,000 for small businesses to advertise with local outlets, and a payroll tax credit for news organizations to help them hire and keep staff.
It may seem far-fetched that in this day and age of budget battles galore Congress might bring public dollars to bear against the news crisis. But, current polling shows the electorate would support this investment. A 2019 Gallup/Knight study found 86 percent of American adults believe everyone should have access to local news. Six in 10 “consider the local newspaper in their community an important symbol of civic pride,” Gallup/Knight found.
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Spotlight: Q&A with Sam Whitmore, Owner Sam Whitmore's Media Survey
With all of the recent changes in the media landscape, we reached out to Sam Whitmore, Owner, Sam Whitmore's Media Survey, to get his take on the future of journalism and how communications need to adapt to these changes.
How do you recommend today's Communication professionals rise to the challenges of shrinking media outlets and fewer reporters? I'd recommend they stay focused on the thousands of staff reporters and freelancers who still practice the craft. Many if not most of the layoffs affected publications outside the scope of tech and business journalism as SG and SWMS would define it. Context is important here. The rise of Donald Trump and Covid-19 combined to drive traffic in historic ways, and media brands frantically staffed up to serve demand. Now that those factors have subsided to some degree, many titles have found themselves overstaffed and adjusted accordingly.
Is there a number or statistic that you've seen that sums up just how drastically we've seen the news sector decline in engagement or employment numbers? Looks like 16,000+ in 2023 and 538 in Jan. 2024.
Is there a future business model for news that you think offers some hope for the future of news? The model of "subscriptions within subscriptions" is hiding in plain sight in the form of WSJ verticals, as well as The Wirecutter and The Athletic in the NYT. It's easier to upsell subscribers who already subscribe. We keep hearing about micropayments, but they work best with impulse buys, as we see in streaming video (as in "it's only $4 and I really want to watch this right now"). Web articles tend not to trigger the same passion.
Personally, I think the "loyalty" business model as seen in the airline and credit card industries could work in media consumption. For example, once they register, readers of Conde Nast or Dow Jones publications could be rewarded based on articles clicked, dwell time and other measures available through first-party data. Meanwhile, these same publishers could develop affiliate relationships with merchandisers, e.g. "Spend an hour online with us -- earn 5,000 'Conde points' and get yourself a special-edition Stanley cup!"
Do you think it's time for the media industry to rethink its unwillingness to accept public or donor funding? That model already exists, typically at the extremes of the political/social spectrum. The "middle" cannot accept funding because of plummeting trust in media overall. Middle-of-the-road media brands can go as far as tip jars, maybe, but nothing systematic. They would be attacked from both sides.
Do you believe tech news has some inherent business advantages over other media sources given the continued growth in the tech sector? One would think "yes," since nearly all manner of innovation can be traced to tech. Unfortunately, challenges abound. One comes with consolidation at the top -- the Magnificent Seven, and FAANG before that. In most tech segments there's barely anyone in the middle -- mostly just cash-starved startups and the behemoths. The lack of competition in the middle has changed the nature of tech news. Since there are few true horse races, media often winds up chasing trends as reflected in search and social media. Such behavior makes tech media a follower and not a leader. To be fair, the best tech media shops do invest in "how" and "why" stories and chase case studies to determine what is actually working. But as comms pros know only too well, sourcing stories like these is difficult. The best path forward for comms pros -- courageous ones -- is to re-educate clients to use paid media for messaging and earned media purely to establish executives as SMEs and to help reporters create imaginative, prescriptive content that keeps readers coming back to the publication being pitched.
💡Navigating Today's Media Landscape
We asked several communications pros to share their thoughts on how they are helping clients navigate today's media landscape where, sadly, there are fewer and fewer outlets and reporters to pitch.
Elizabeth Yekhtikian Principal of Earned Media Consultants who regularly interviews leading business and broadcast media about what makes for a compelling story and spokesperson and also actively pitches the media says this is the most challenging PR environment of her career as we are witnessing major lay-offs in the tech industry (including many reporters), as well as an unrelenting and unprecedented global news cycle including two wars and an upcoming election like no other which means reporters are tasked with additional beats and responsibilities and under more pressure for their stories to resonate. What this means for a spokesperson conducting an interview: You have one chance to make sure your points resonate with a reporter and get your story told—a spokesperson needs to address larger issues that readers, listeners care about and be rooted in a trend - not tout a product or service.
Martha Feingold Senior Media Strategist/Corporate Communications In the current environment, the fundamentals are even more important- superb storytelling and well-nurtured media relationships. But it's critical to advise a mult-channel approach including owned content, paid media (for articles and speaking) and a super-smart social strategy. It would be suicidal to sign on a client that is exclusively interested in top-tier traditional earned media and doesn't understand the realities of today's marketplace.
Kathryn Kelly , Owner, Kelly Communications The current media landscape requires communication professionals to have strong media relationships. PR and communications must be a resource for the media, provide industry data and content, and access to your CEO or founder, including on background and off the record, even if you won't be included in the story. Build trust with the reporter, and eventually, your company will be included in their stories.
David Henderson , Founder, StoryBound Communications The current environment is one of the most difficult in my career. I can't count the number of journalists I know who have lost their jobs recently or faced rounds of layoffs with their teams. It's a harrowing time for the media industry and more important than ever for PR professionals to focus on relationships.
To navigate with clients, the first step is understanding how the media landscape is changing and the importance of building relationships and telling stories that matter beyond just your company's news announcements. What is your unique point of view on an innovation topic or emerging trend?
Brands and individual leaders have an opportunity to do more on the thought leadership front with contributed articles, podcasts and other storytelling vehicles in the current environment where media outlets are hungry for content.
Another area where clients can get more involved in helping to craft stories. Work with your PR team to brainstorm and mine for stories across your business.
Empathy, timing, and conciseness is more important than ever right now with media having less bandwidth to cover news. It's important for clients and their PR teams to take time to ask why does the story matter? What are the most compelling data points to support the story, and is the story hook truly unique?
Lastly, make sure you take time to build relationships with reporters. This not only means connecting with media on LinkedIn and pitching news, but bringing them unique story ideas or scoops, while also showing you're connected to what they're writing about, the current news cycles and their current situation.