1. R&B singer Lyfe Jennings arrested in Smyrna (GA town)
2. Rockmart man claims $42 Million lottery prize
3. Don't have sex, win a $10,000 wedding
4. Dogs linebacker out for rest of season
5. UGA to fire professor who hid sex crime
Please, don't agree with me, and comment to tell me why you don't, but I see all but the fifth most popular story as non-news.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on hard local and national news stories, but those listed here are the most popular, most read stories as of today. The AJC, much like other news websites, lists a "Diggs"-like most popular story feature. What types of stories are being read less than those listed above?
Some are just interesting:
"16,000 Georgians haven't claimed tax checks"
"Missed phone call haunted man who punched killer in court"
Others are of importance to local readers:
"Runoff for Senate seat could make Georgia 'center of the universe'"
"Atlanta jobless rates rise"
What does this focus on entertainment news mean for the news industry? It seems like readers are less interested in traditional news and more interested in entertainment news. Take, for example, TMZ's huge jump in ratings over the last 12 months and CNN's dropping ratings compared to the last election cycle.
Atlantans don't care about the senate race or corruption in government, they want to read about scandal in entertainment, whether it is presented in print or on the internet. Does this mean to say that they would not buy a newspaper, not because of readily available blogs or alternative media, but because of the focus? People, Us Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly aren't seeing any of the ad revenue slump; their magazines are doing just fine.
I think that some of the focus that we put on blogs and alternative media as the usurpers of the newspaper is misplaced. Much of it, I would think, has to do with changes in our societal focus. This, perhaps, is a more complex trend to track than ad revenue or circulation extent, but it seems to be having an effect nonetheless. Demand removed from the newspaper probably has a complex and varied set of causes, many of which we're probably overlooking in our discussions of the industry.
The supply has shifted to entertainment because that's where the demand is, not in newspapers.
1 comment:
I wrote about this same thing, even starting with the most-viewed stories of my hometown newspaper. Only, I did not come to the same conclusion--mostly because I didn't come to any conclusions--but what you said makes sense to me. In fact, it reminds me of an article I read in "Newsweek" about two years ago on how the twenty-somethings of China are, on a whole, do not care that their government is Communist and their media-government run. The article cited the cause as complacency due to financial security and in many cases surplus. Is this an international trend of ambivalence then? And would a depression or world war drive us deeper into the world of entertainment, or save news?
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