Digital journalism: More work, more pressure but more opportunity

Longer hours, more pressure, decreasing quality and less enjoyable work. Old media is a dark, dark place for journalism - at least that's the mood of many of the journalists who were interviewed for the annual Oriella digital journalism study.
There are some reasons to be cheerful, which include journalists not being quite as pessimistic as the previous year. Are things really that bad?

The Ugly

• Oriella PR interviewed 770 journalists in 15 countries including the US, Brazil and several in Europe. More than half the journalists working on traditional newspaper, TV and radio formats said they thought the channel would fold, and one in six say this has already happened. The trend is exaggerated in Sweden where a third of traditional channels have closed and one in six has completely transferred online.
• Forty-four percent said print media will shrink dramatically – pessimistic, but down from 60% in the 2009 survey. Around 43% said lack of profitability online will impact resources and therefore the quality of journalism.
• Advertising will fall a further 10% this year, journalists expect, though they anticipate a smaller drop than 2009.
• Around 46% of journalists said they were expected to produce more work, 30% said they are working longer hours and 28% have less time to research stories. Welcome to our world.

The Bad

• Journalists are producing less video, largely due to cuts in budget and increased time pressures. Last year, the number of news sites offering video reached 50%, but this fell to 39% this year. Blogs and discussion boards were also less used, according to the journalists surveyed this year.
• Journalists are less interested in receiving multimedia content from PRs; 75% want emailed releases and half want photographs. Does this mean less imaginative and experimental editorial?

The Good

• Journalists are slightly more positive about the future; only 14% think the total number of media outlets will shrink (by this, they mean established media rather than blog houses) and 40% think the web provides new opportunities. The most optimistic webbists were in the UK, US, Spain and Brazil.
• Twitter is even more widely used this year with 41% of publications running a feed. But that only increased 6% from the previous year – not much considering the rapid growth of Twitter. It was most popular in the UK, US and Brazil.
• Smartphones are increasingly important to publishers, particularly as they look to apps to provide a new income stream. One in five publications now has a mobile app, but apps are particularly popular in Germany, Italy and the US where one in three publishers offer them.
• One quarter of publishers are looking at paid-access models, with 30% exploring paid-for websites and 22% mulling charges for smartphone apps. Sunday Times executive editor Tristan Davies said there is a broader move to paid-for digital content in the industry: "The arrival of iPad and the explosion of mobile media means we will be able to give people the Sunday Times however they want it, wherever they are and whenever they want it. We think that's worth paying for. The Times and Sunday Times may be the first British newspaper to introduce subscriptions for their websites but it's clear from this survey that other media groups are actively working on ways of making their digital content pay."
• But despite the added workload and that extra pressure, 79% of journalists think the quality of their work has remained high and 84% still enjoy their jobs. The most optimistic journalists regard technology as an aid, rather than a threat. Quite right too.

Source: Guardian.co.uk