Media Industry

The long-stable world of evening network news looks a bit jostled just three week's into Katie Couric's tenure in the CBS Evening News anchor chair. She may not be in first place anymore but compared to other anchor debuts, Couric has at least temporarily disrupted the long-consistent one, two, three finish among NBC, ABC, and CBS. Is it a long-term change or just a ripple?

Faced with declining circulation and softening ad pages the big newsweeklies are shaking things up. Both Time and Newsweek recently appointed new editors, and the former is changing its publication day and possibly pruning circulation. Are they in the midst of a mere tweaking, or is it the beginning of a major reinvention?

In the media business, there’s a raging debate about the accuracy of the numbers that purport to track visitors to the major news web sites. But some analysts say that when it comes to the economics of the Internet, the traditional reliance on audience size may just not be that important to advertisers.

In the ninth and last of our summer roundtable discussions on the future of the news media, bloggers and analysts discuss how the Internet is transforming the gathering and delivery of information and also offer their ideas on what traditional news organizations must do to keep pace and remain relevant.

Now that the hype and the waiting is finally over, how did Katie Couric do on her historic opening night at the CBS anchor desk? Not so great, according to dozens of TV critics and commentators who offered up mostly mixed or negative reviews of her inaugural broadcast and snide remarks about her wardrobe.

Officials of Al Jazeera International discuss their plans for launching the English-language version of the controversial Arab news channel. Why the long delays? Is the network anti-American? That, plus, a chronology of the rocky relationship between Al Jazeera and the US government.

Summary of Findings The public is of two minds about news reports that the government has been secretly examining the bank records of American citizens who may have ties to terrorist groups. By a margin of 50%-34%, Americans think that news organizations have hurt rather than helped the interests of the American people with these […]

in our fifth roundtable discussion on the future of the news media, industry analysts discuss how local TV news can remain relevant and whether it needs to reinvest more profit back into the product.

Overview A decade ago, just one-in-fifty Americans got the news with some regularity from what was then a brand new source ­ the internet. Today, nearly one-in-three regularly get news online. But the growth of the online news audience has slowed considerably since 2000, particularly among the very young, who are now somewhat less likely […]

The Project for Excellence in Journalism introduces the first in a series of nine roundtables with industry experts on the future of the news media. Today’s roundtable concerns the changing landscape of Network TV news.