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January 11, 2010
Study Finds That Papers Lead in Providing New Information
By RICHARD PREZ-PEA
There are more places to go for local news but less news to find there, and the great majority of actual
reporting still comes from newspapers, according to a study of the Baltimore area that is scheduled to be
released on Monday.
Looking at six major story lines that developed over one week last July, 83 percent of the reports in local
news media were essentially repetitive, conveying no new information, said the study, by the Project for
Excellence in Journalism, an arm of the Pew Research Center.
Despite diminished resources of established news organizations, of the stories that did contain new
information, nearly all, 95 percent, came from old media most of them newspapers, it said. These
stories then tended to set the narrative agenda for most other media outlets.
The study found 53 different sources of local news general-interest newspapers like The Baltimore Sun,
The Washington Post and their Web sites, several smaller papers in the region, publications devoted to a
niche like local business, local television and radio stations, and new online news sites and blogs. Even the
reporting done by traditional media was driven mostly by government statements rather than journalists
own digging, the study found.
On one of the most heavily covered events, proposed cuts to the state budget, the study found that in all
media, there were fewer than one-third as many reports as during a similar round of cuts in 1991, despite
the presence of more news outlets in the region.
It is not clear how well the results reflect what is happening elsewhere in the country; there are some
markets, like San Diego and Minneapolis, where the online news start-ups have become significant sources
of original reporting.
But the study offered support for the argument often made by the traditional media that, so far, most of
what digital news outlets offer is repetition and commentary, not new information.
RICHARD PREZ-PEA
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