The 2008 “The State of News Media”, researched and written by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, paints a troubling picture. In fact, you get the impression that media need to wake up from their deep slumber.  Their businesses are changing right before their very eyes, but too bad they can’t see it - because their eyes are closed.

Well, ok, perhaps, a bit too harsh.  But publishers, general managers and managing directors need to read this report carefully.  Here are six findings that are extremely critical lessons that serve as the keys to the future:

* News is shifting from product to service.  There’s never a finished product, and we are now living in an era when the news cycle is continous. It doesn’t stop when when the network or local news signs off or when the last newspaper is run off the presses. Those media organizations who figure out how to help their readers/viewers/customers find what they’re looking for and give them tools to help them ‘use’ the information will survive.

* News organizations are no longer ‘destination sites’.  This is a killer to ‘ivory tower’ media executives who for so long were the only game in town. News sites must simply serve as guideposts in the crowded, complicated and vast world of the web.  “That means every page of a Web site - even one containing a single story - is its own front page,” the report says, “And each piece of content competes on its own with all other information on that topic linked to by blogs, “digged” by user news sites, sent in e-mails, or appearing in searches.”  Perhaps media in smaller communities have a bright future if they couple hyperlocal coverage with a smart new media strategy.

* Citizen journalism or ‘we media’ are novel concepts, but media companies should not  bet their entire futures on it.  Media executives should look at integrating tools as part of their stories that engage readers in these stories.  Encourage them to post comments and participate in a proactive dialogue about the stories that impact their lives, and provide them the links and resources to get help.

* Newsrooms are considered the ‘innovators’ while advertising “doesn’t know how to start to cope”, the report says.  Blogs, ranking stories, allowing comments are perceived as “making journalism better.”  “These new technologies are seen as less a threat to values or a demand on time than a way to reconnect with audiences,” the report says.

Online 
Top Stories of 2007: MSNBC.com vs. MSNBC

* Despite the access to many more sources around the world, American news media’s scope of coverage narrowed.  The top two stories - consuming more than a quarter of the newshole - were the war in Iraq and the 2008 presidential campaign.  Domestic issues - like education, race, religion, housing and gun control - received less than one percent.  Even with such major stories at the Virginia Tech shooting and the Minneapolis bridge collapse, media virtually dropped those stories after a week of coverage, the report says.

* Advertising agencies are lagging terribly behind, falling victim to dated technology and strategies. “The people who run these agencies know the old-media methods and have old-media contacts,” the report states. Agencies need to create more sophisticated ways to use new media’s access to greater knowledge about consumer behavior to improve its metrics.  New methods could only lead to better strategies and aid the their survival - and the news media.