What editors around the world think

George Brock, the Saturday Times Editor in the UK, gave us an indication of the state of newsrooms around the world. It was based on a poll of 435 editors towards the end of 2006, from all around the world.

Only 9% of newspaper publishers didn’t have a website.

5% had a website that attracted more than 1-million unique users ; 40% had traffic between 500 000-1-million unique users

37% of newspapers increased in circulation and 37% decreased in circulation; 23% the same

79% viewed new media journalism as good news; Only 5% viewed online & new media as a ‘threat’

74% thought online/interactive journalism had a positive impact on quality

48% think that print & online journalism should be free; 39% said no

40% said they think that would read news online in the future; 39% said print

66% said opinion & analysis pages will be stronger in the future

28% said advertisers; 26% said shareholders and 19% said political pressure pose possible threats to editorial independence

61% said they were optimistic about their newspaper’s future

Conclusion: “Newspaper editorial leaders worldwide have good feelings about the future of their own papers and the industry as a whole, and they seem to be prepared for (and even welcome) the development of new technologies in news and distribution” — John Zogby

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