US: Study shows newsroom cutbacks are hurting coverage Part 1

A study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, called "The Changing Newsroom: What is Being Gained and What is Being Lost in America's Daily Newspapers", has found that smaller newsrooms are hurting newspaper quality. The recent brutal cuts in newsrooms across America are taking their toll, the Associated Press report.

"America's newspapers are narrowing their reach and their ambitions and becoming niche reads," the study said.

Newspaper paper stories are generally shorter and the coverage tends to focus on local events. The study also showed that papers carry less foreign, national and business, science and arts news, and many have reduced the crossword puzzle and eliminated television and stock listings. Reporters are also having to cover more than one beat, as Editors struggle with less staff.

Despite this, 56 percent of the editors surveyed said their news product is better than it was three years ago because coverage is more targeted. Only 5 percent of the editors surveyed said they were confident they could predict what the newsroom would look like in five years.

The PEJ study surveyed senior newsroom executives at more than 250 newspapers and interviewed editors at papers in 15 cities. The results of the survey, conducted online by Princeton Survey Research Associates International between Jan. 29 and Feb. 29, include responses from over 50 percent of U.S. papers with 100,000 or more in circulation and more than 30 percent of papers with 50,000 to 100,000 in circulation.

Source: Associated Press