James Joyner · · 4 comments



Social Times has a piece with the shocking headline “Survey: Half of Journalists Think Their Offline Publications Will Eventually Fold.” A closer read, though, shows that they’ve actually grossly undersold the story.

According to a recent report by Oriella PR Network, journalists see their offline publications as risky endeavors in the current economy, with over half of those surveyed predicting the demise of their print, publication or TV media sometime in the future.

According to the Oriella Digital Journalism Report, journalists’ attitudes towards the current state of the media is rather bleak. In addition to over half of them predicting the downfall of their offline publications, one quarter believes that media in general, whether on- or off-line, will shrink significantly.

Many media-hawks predict that traditional media will indeed die out, while new media will rise up and take its place. The journalists polled for this report bear this out: 40 percent say that the shift to new media will bring new opportunities. However, over 50 percent of respondents think that online media are still far from profitable business models, and over 40 percent believe that the reliance on PR-content will increase. Combined, these results show mixed feelings towards new media: it might open new doors, but journalists aren’t quite sure those doors lead to greener pastures.