NEW YORK
The many and deepening cuts at newspapers across the country are starting to take a toll on their content, according to a study being released Monday.
The challenge newspapers must meet immediately is to find more revenue on the Internet, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s study, called “The Changing Newsroom: What is Being Gained and What is Being Lost in America’s Daily Newspapers.”
Newspaper managers need to “find a way to monetize the rapid growth of Web readership before newsroom staff cuts so weaken newspapers that their competitive advantage disappears.”
Stories are shorter overall, the study found, and staff coverage tends to focus on local and community news.
“America’s newspapers are narrowing their reach and their ambitions and becoming niche reads,” the study said.
Even when foreign and national news makes it into the papers, it is being relegated to less prominent pages.
