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
