Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Why Howard Kurtz Is A Must-Read

Deep into a fascinating column about internal divisions at Fox over Glenn Beck, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz offers this succinct summation of what's happening with media - - old and new:

"Eighty percent of the [Internet] traffic for news and information is vacuumed up by the top 7 percent of such sites, says an annual survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. These, according to Nielsen figures, are led by aggregator sites: Yahoo (No. 1, with 40.8 million unique monthly visitors), AOL (No. 3) and Google News (No. 6). The television news sites are also strong: MSNBC (2), CNN (4), Fox News (7) and ABC News (8). And three newspapers make the list: the New York Times (5), Washington Post (9) and USA Today (10, with 9.3 million unique visitors).

But all Web destinations are not created equal. Consumers spend more than twice as much time on cable TV sites (23 1/2 minutes a month) as on newspaper sites (10 minutes a month). Online-only sites fared only slightly better (12 1/2 minutes a month). Two political sites stand out: the right-leaning Drudge Report (nearly an hour each month) and the liberal Daily Kos (48 minutes).

Drawing eyeballs online is only part of the battle. The report says that 79 percent of Web consumers have rarely if ever clicked on an online ad -- one reason that Internet revenue badly trails that of print publications. Even among the most loyal news consumers, only 19 percent said they are willing to pay for news online.

Still, the old and new remain connected. In examining more than 1 million blogs and social networking sites, the project found that 80 percent of the links are to the "legacy media" -- the traditional organizations that are largely shrinking."

4 comments:

  1. Howard Kurtz is either clueless or an idiot, or maybe he thinks his readers are.

    How is Beck any different than Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity during their respective rises at the Fox News Channel?

    My guess is that if you look back thru the Kurtz archives you will see this is a recycled storyline.

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  2. To Anon Jim (back from spring break?);

    Yeah, Howard Kurtz is either clueless or an idiot. He's only the premier media critic in the country, and the points he makes about Fox and Beck are valid.

    Did Reilly and Hannity spawn advertisers' boycotts, as has Beck?

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  3. Hmmmm - last time I went on a "Spring Break" was back in 1981 during my undergrad years.

    Was on a "vacation" though visiting family in Arizona.

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  4. Anon Jim,

    We really enjoyed your "vacation" from here. . . also a vacation for us from your pesky and inaccurate comments on the PE. Any chance you'll be taking another soon? Or maybe you'd consider taking a logic course to help make sense of your generally inane comments. How about a mini-course in fact-checking or "Facts vs. Fox: You decide."

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