AG on New Media

For this, the last blog of the quarter, we were asked to compare the site design of two hometown news outlets. I’ll be looking at my home paper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and our local ABC affiliate, KSTP TV. Though neither site are true design “home runs” the Star Tribune’s layout is more professional and functional, though they lack serious multimedia integration. KSTP’s site attempts to integrate video (as they should, given that they’re a TV station), but falls flat in its implementation.

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Evan Cornog, in his Columbia Journalism Review piece “Let’s Blame the Readers” discusses how newspapers might combat the marked decline in readership currently in progress in the United States. He mentions two opposing solutions: changing what papers cover and reeducating the American public. Cornog’s prognostications are faulty in that they are not extreme enough. Blog networks are doing a better job than newspapers ever can of coverage on topics readership studies say younger readers care about most meaning the educational role of the newspaper must improve if papers are to survive.

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In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., Americans interest in international news was reinvigorated. Journalism organizations that closed and consolidated bureaus around the world were jolted into action. And, according to the Pew Research Center for People and The Press’ study, the Internet is bringing that news to people, though admittedly fewer than in the past. Though interest in international news on the internet is up, people still care more about news that is inherently local and impactful such as the weather.

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The Pew Research Center for People and The Press’ study of the effects of the Internet on newspaper readership had two particularly interesting parts. First, users do not cite the medium’s multimedia capabilities as a reason for getting news online. Second is the importance of search for online news consumers.

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