Project for Excellence in Journalism’s 2010 “State of the News Media” report is out, and it’s full of interesting analysis about how 2009 unfolded in terms of audience and revenues for the news organizations.
PEJ Director Tom Rosenstiel told TVNewser that, according to original analysis of Nielsen data, “local tv news is now losing audience at an accelerating rate across all day parts.” But Rosenstiel also said, “The only sector in any media that an up year last year was cable.”
According to the report, “Median prime-time viewership rose 7% to 3.88 million [compared to 2008] — and daytime grew even more, up 16% to 2.16 million.” Profits were up 9% and revenues were up 5% (more on the revenues later).
Pew points out that while CNN and MSNBC have managed to remain static, “Fox achieved growth across nearly all key metrics,” which means Fox News accounts for most of those viewership and revenue gains.
As far as content goes, politics received more coverage in cable news than any other news sector in 2009, and the economy was the #1 subject, though “cable spent less time (17%) covering it than any other media sector except for network television not including PBS’ NewsHour.” 82% of cable news coverage was focused on U.S.-centric news, with CNN devoting 23% of time to foreign news, Fox News devoting 18%, and MSNBC devoting 13%. MSNBC spent significantly more time on the health care debate than its competitors.
A summary of cable news analysis can be found here. And a host of interesting charts are posted here.