KEY POINTS:
So much for the democratisation of journalism, citizen news gathering and the power of the web to present a broader range of views and opinions.
One of the biggest studies devoted to looking at the changing media landscape, the State of News Media report produced by the US-based Project for Excellence in Journalism, suggests that in 2008 we're consuming a narrower selection of news content than ever before and that the traditional media players have increasing influence.
"With so many new sources, more people now consume what old media newsrooms produce, particularly from print, than before. Online, for instance, the top 10 news websites, drawing mostly from old brands, are more of an oligarchy, commanding a larger share of audience, than in the legacy media," the report says.
Such has been the scramble to secure joint ventures between old world media gatekeepers and nimble new world web players, we appear to be seeing more rehashing of the same news than ever before. It's spread across the web as licensing agreements allow it to be used on multiple websites, it's aggregated by service like Google News, repackaged and served up via Web 2.0 services as diverse as YouTube and LinkedIn.
New voices have indeed emerged - blogging networks and online magazines offer grassroots reporting on the web. But the overall theme of the last year is that we're consuming more of the same type of news.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. The media giants were supposed to be terminally ill, drowned out in the bottomless pit of the internet by emerging news outlets using new technologies to deliver more targeted content to us online, via computer desktop widgets and to our mobile phones.
Audiences are fragmenting, we were told, the future lies in niche markets.
Newspaper publishers panicked and put their money into web publishing projects, cutting expenses related to their core product, the humble newspaper. Reporters quit, annoyed their bosses seemed to be more interested in the medium than the message.
News that the mainstream media has managed to hold on to its audience is likely to come as some relief to those journalists who clung on but feared being made irrelevant by the web. But the research suggests the media industry is really struggling to make the online news model pay its way.
Newspaper circulation in the US dropped 2.5 per cent last year, while online viewership of newspaper websites increased 3.7 per cent.
Online ad revenue from newspaper websites accounts for only 7 per cent of the average US outlet's total revenue.
Despite news website visits increasing rapidly, advertising lost with falling newspaper circulation isn't being replaced quickly enough by web advertising. The online subscription model has died.
If the mainstream media thought the pain of changing its business model was largely over, it will have to think again. The report is proof that at the end of the day, people primarily still want decent news coverage of public life.
Providing that takes money, time and expertise, something citizen journalism can't provide.
But consumers now see news as a service. They want to feel empowered and given the chance to take action, have their say, to use the information to better their own lives. It is here that the value in the online media really lies and is where the media companies need to improve their game to make the online news business model viable. The homogenisation of news content has to stop.
Otherwise what's the point of going online?
