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Articles by Jesse Holcomb
Chapter 4: Marketing for audience growth
Chapter 4: Marketing for audience growth By Jesse Holcomb Some nonprofit newsrooms have embraced marketing as a way to deepen and widen their reach despite (or amid) ever-tightening competition for audience attention. Roughly three quarters of nonprofit news organizations dedicate at least a portion of their annual budgets toward marketing their journalism to wider audiences. But, for the vast majority of outlets, marketing remains a tiny portion of their overall budget.
Media Mistrust Has Been Growing for Decades-Does It Matter?
Midway through the 20th century, the news media was among the most trusted institutions in the United States. Today, it sits near the bottom of the list, outflanked only by Congress in most surveys. It’s one of those social facts that elicits a sense of self-evidence (“We needed a survey for that?”). Everybody knows the media has a credibility problem. And seemingly everyone has got a beef with the news. What happened?
The sky is not falling: Annual INN Index data show nonprofit news is stable, but not foolproof
The sky is not falling: Annual INN Index data show nonprofit news is stable, but not foolproof Share | By Emily Roseman, Jesse Holcomb and Karen Rundlet Over the seven years the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) has studied the nonprofit news sector, the signals have pointed in the same direction: growth. This year, the signals were a little more mixed than usual.
We find out how good (or bad) 21st-century polling really is
In no particular order, here is a cornucopia of predictions for 2024. As in every election year in recent memory, 2024 will improve the market for political news. Audience trend charts look like Charlie Brown’s sweater pattern — up and down and up again, every four years. By now, the savviest news organizations have figured out how to monetize the hardcore enthusiasts for political news.
INN Index in Focus: State and Regional News Fact Sheet
2022 INN Index Fact Sheet: State and Regional News Home 2022 INN Index Fact… Share | By Michele McLellan, Jesse Holcomb and Emily Roseman Oct. 5, 2022 Definition: State news outlets primarily focus on government policy, politics or topics of public interest such as health or the environment within a single state. Regional news outlets focus on a geographic area larger than a single state such as a cluster of several Midwest states or a region that encompasses parts of more than one state.
INN Index in Focus: Local News Fact Sheet
Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display 2022 INN Index Fact Sheet: Local News Home 2022 INN Index Fact… By Michele McLellan, Jesse Holcomb and Emily Roseman Sept. 28, 2022 Definition: Local news organizations are those that cover part or all of a community, municipality or county or a cluster of them, ranging from large metro areas to small neighborhoods. The factsheet covers data for 121 local news organizations.
Tomorrow’s news audience: Smaller, but more obsessed
If you spend as much time as I do with survey data about the news media, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that news audiences — at least here in the U.S. — are on the decline. To be sure, news consumption tends to come in peaks and troughs around election cycles, and so a languishing news audience in 2022 would fit a predictable pattern. And further, many observers have noted the burnout effect following months of wearying news about Covid-19.
INN Index in Focus: Local News Fact Sheet
Nonprofit News Fact Sheet: Local news Home Nonprofit News Fact Sheet:… Share | By Michele McLellan, Jesse Holcomb and Emily Roseman Sept. 28, 2021 Definition: Local news organizations are those that cover part or all of a community, municipality or county or a cluster of them, ranging from large metro areas to rural communities. This study includes 92 local outlets, which accounted for more than a third of the nonprofit news field in the United States and Canada in 2020.
INN Index in Focus: National and Global News Fact Sheet
Nonprofit News Fact Sheet: National and global news Home Nonprofit News Fact Sheet:… Share By Michele McLellan, Jesse Holcomb and Emily Roseman Sept. 28, 2021 Definition: National organizations focus on public affairs issues that affect the entire country, whereas global organizations generally take aim at broad world topics or they produce news of distant places. There are 70 of these organizations in the study, including 47 national and 23 global in scope.
INN Index in Focus: State and Regional News Fact Sheet
Nonprofit News Fact Sheet: State and regional news Home Nonprofit News Fact Sheet:… Share By Michele McLellan, Jesse Holcomb and Emily Roseman Sept. 28, 2021 Definition: State and regional news outlets primarily focus on government policy or politics or topics of public interest such as health or the environment in a single state or in a region. There are 60 state and 21 regional outlets in this study. Together, they make less than one-third of the nonprofit news field.
New study: What people tell us about their news habits when they’re not being asked
It’s a common question that vexes survey researchers who study the media: how much do people’s responses to news consumption questions align with their actual behaviors? The sheer scale and variety of the digital news environment makes it tougher than ever for individuals to recall where they get their news. What’s more, survey takers may be inclined to give answers that they think pollsters want to hear.
Genre erosion in nonprofit journalism
From my vantage point as a researcher, I sometimes have to draw boundaries around things. Defining categories of measurement, circumscribing them, and making a transparent attempt to defend those categories. What does and does not count as “news”? What is and isn’t a “news organization”? Sometimes it seems blunt or harsh, but you have to spell out your terms — it’s the honest thing to do.
Twitter Makes It Worse: Political Journalists, Gendered Echo Chambers, and the Amplification of Gender Bias
Adams, Catharine. 2017. “‘They Go for Gender First’: The Nature and Effect of Sexist Abuse of Female Technology Journalists.” Journalism Practice. Published electronically August 9. doi:10.1080/17512786.2017.1350115. Google Scholar | Crossref Allsop, Jon, Ho, Karen K. 2017. Global Media Confronts Its Own Weinsteins. Columbia Journalism Review. https://www.cjr.org/watchdog/media-weinstein-sexual-harassment-global.php. Google Scholar Armstrong, Cory L. 2004.
In U.S., Views of Diversity in News Vary by Party ID, Race
by Helen Stubbs and Jesse Holcomb Story Highlights 79% say news organizations should increase diversity on their staffs Views of where diversity efforts should focus vary by race, party General views of media drive views of how well it is handling diversity WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A solid majority of Americans say it is important for the news media to reflect the diversity of the U.S. population, and even more think news organizations should hire with diversity in mind.
The topography of local news: A new map
Tow Center By Sarah Stonbely and Jesse Holcomb April 29, 2020 Counties in New Jersey, shaded by number of news-originating outlets | Photo: Sarah Stonebely and Jesse Holcomb Local journalism has become more important than ever. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, researchers were seeking new ways of seeing the local news landscape amid constant disruption.
New nonprofit news report: More local outlets come online
The coronavirus pandemic has sent an ailing local news industry into free fall across the United States. But in dozens of communities, nonprofit organizations that cover local news are a promising bright spot. These outlets tend to be small operations, most with staffs of three or fewer, and modest audience reach and revenue. They are operating with lean budgets, tight margins and high dependence on charitable funding. But their numbers are growing.
Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage
Local news initiatives run into a capital shortage “There may not be enough philanthropic capital, even on the sidelines, to support the scope and depth of local news-gathering that our democracy requires.” Until now, daily newspapers have served as a primary source of public service journalism both in local communities and at the state level.
Nonprofit Journalism: A Growing but Fragile Part of the U.S. News System
The growing nonprofit news sector is showing some signs of economic health, and most leaders of those outlets express optimism about the future, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center. But many of these organizations also face substantial challenges to their long-term financial well-being. The report finds that large, often one-time seed grants from foundations help many of these nonprofit news outlets get up and running.
We’ll get better at making the case for local journalism
About three years ago, I was sitting in a day-long workshop at the National Press Club with journalists, academics, funders ,and think-tank types. Toward the end of the day, someone referenced, in passing, a peer-reviewed paper showing that local journalism has a measurable and positive impact on governance and civic life.
Heavy activity concentrated among a minority of users
The engagement level of Reddit users taking part in the candidate discussions over the three months studied echoes earlier research about other digital spaces. The majority of authors offered just a single comment naming a candidate, while fewer came back with multiple comments over the course of the study. Fully six-in-ten of almost 100,000 authors posted just a single comment naming a presidential candidate. A quarter posted three or more.
Can local news join the digital age?
Coastal Courier reader Charmette Reed tries out the newspaper’s Virtual Reality equipment during a Liberty County Chamber of Commerce business after hours event. Photo courtesy The Coastal Courier. The Coastal Courier, a Georgia-based community newspaper, has an office on Main Street and serves up a print edition twice a week. Coverage ranges from the civic (“Upcoming blood drives this month”) to the sordid (“Man charged with human trafficking”).
Digital Adaptation in Local News
By Jesse Holcomb September 27, 2018 Newspapers in black and white, Jon S. Photo: Creative Commons. Introduction | Key Findings | Key Findings | Mobile news offerings | Generating revenue online | The user experience in online local news | Regional variation in digital practice | Citations | Appendix A | Appendix B Introduction More than a quarter century after the creation of the World Wide Web, nine in ten Americans get at least some news online.
Twitter Makes It Worse: Political Journalists, Gendered Echo Chambers, and the Amplification of Gender Bias
Get full access to this article View all access and purchase options for this article. References Adams Catharine. 2017. “‘They Go for Gender First’: The Nature and Effect of Sexist Abuse of Female Technology Journalists.” Journalism Practice. Published electronically August 9. Allsop Jon, Ho Karen K. 2017. Global Media Confronts Its Own Weinsteins. Columbia Journalism Review. https://www.cjr.org/watchdog/media-weinstein-sexual-harassment-global.php. Armstrong Cory L. 2004.
Twitter Makes It Worse: Political Journalists, Gendered Echo Chambers, and the Amplification of Gender Bias
Adams, Catharine. 2017. “‘They Go for Gender First’: The Nature and Effect of Sexist Abuse of Female Technology Journalists.” Journalism Practice. Published electronically August 9. doi:10.1080/17512786.2017.1350115. Google Scholar | Crossref Allsop, Jon, Ho, Karen K. 2017. Global Media Confronts Its Own Weinsteins. Columbia Journalism Review. https://www.cjr.org/watchdog/media-weinstein-sexual-harassment-global.php. Google Scholar Armstrong, Cory L. 2004.
Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
The malaise that transformed American politics into a hall of mirrors during the leadup to the 2016 presidential election will increasingly afflict local communities. Why? The social platforms that became vectors for misinformation and its evil twin, disinformation, are widely used not just for national news, but also for community information.
Cable: By the Numbers
By Jesse Holcomb and Amy Mitchell of the Pew Research Center “By the Numbers” houses a comprehensive set of charts and tables telling the story of each media sector. For a narrative summary, visit the corresponding essay. Cable viewership over all, for the three main news channels (CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC), inched up only slightly in 2012, an election-year gain that paled in comparison to the audience growth that occurred during the previous presidential race.
The Media and Democracy in a Post-Truth Era
Election 2016 was a watershed moment for American politics as well as for its journalists. A host of new digital media outlets and bloggers, some set up just to chase clicks and harnessing the vast power of social media, caught the public’s attention to an unprecedented degree. But the growing influence of these sources has sparked intense debate about the veracity of news in the digital age.
Many Americans Believe Fake News Is Sowing Confusion
In the wake of the 2016 election, everyone from President Obama to Pope Francis has raised concerns about fake news and the potential impact on both political life and innocent individuals. Some fake news has been widely shared, and so-called “pizzagate” stories led a North Carolina man to bring a gun into a popular Washington, D.C. pizza restaurant under the impression that it was hiding a child prostitution ring.
Many Americans Believe Fake News Is Sowing Confusion
In the wake of the 2016 election, everyone from President Obama to Pope Francis has raised concerns about fake news and the potential impact on both political life and innocent individuals. Some fake news has been widely shared, and so-called “pizzagate” stories led a North Carolina man to bring a gun into a popular Washington, D.C. pizza restaurant under the impression that it was hiding a child prostitution ring.
Civic Engagement Strongly Tied to Local News Habits
In local communities, the civically engaged – the people who vote, volunteer and connect with those around them – play a key role in community life. Thus, how and to what degree they stay informed about their communities carries added weight. A new study by Pew Research Center in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation reveals that, overall, the civically engaged are indeed more likely than the less engaged to use and value local news.
1. Regular local voting, community attachment strongly linked to news habits
Overall, those most engaged in civic life tend to also be the most tapped into local news, but an examination of five aspects of civic life and their relationships to three areas of local news habits finds that attachment to one’s community and regular voting in local elections connect most strongly to local news habits.
Civic Engagement Strongly Tied to Local News Habits
In local communities, the civically engaged – the people who vote, volunteer and connect with those around them – play a key role in community life. Thus, how and to what degree they stay informed about their communities carries added weight. A new study by Pew Research Center in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation reveals that, overall, the civically engaged are indeed more likely than the less engaged to use and value local news.
Political diversity within communities shows little relationship with local news habits
One aspect of civic life that registers little connection with local news habits is perceived political diversity — that is, whether a person feels residents of their community generally share the same political views or not. Seven-in-ten U.S. adults report living in communities with a mix of political views, while about three-in-ten (27%) say the political views are similar where they live.
2. Participation in civic life and community rating show weaker ties to local news habits
While community attachment and local voting show a consistent relationship with local news habits, other types of qualities that one might expect to be associated with these habits show more mixed relationships. How active people are in local groups and political activities, for example, corresponds primarily with their interest in and intake of local news, not their attitudes toward local media organizations.
1. Regular local voting, community attachment strongly linked to news habits
Overall, those most engaged in civic life tend to also be the most tapped into local news, but an examination of five aspects of civic life and their relationships to three areas of local news habits finds that attachment to one’s community and regular voting in local elections connect most strongly to local news habits.
Appendix C: Terminology
We examined five different aspects of civic engagement. Attachment to local community: Those who say they feel “highly attached” to their local communities are compared to those who say they feel somewhat or not attached.
The Big Picture for Local News
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How the Lehman Bros. crisis impacted the 2008 presidential race
Five years ago, the collapse of investment banking firm Lehman Brothers ushered in the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. What may not be as vividly remembered is how the economic disaster that occurred just weeks before Election Day changed the media’s campaign coverage, and perhaps the outcome, of the presidential race.
Cable News: Fact Sheet
Cord cutters – people who once had a cable or satellite connection but no longer subscribe – are a present reality for the pay TV industry. But even with all the available platform choices, more viewers turned to cable news channels in 2015 than in 2014, causing a ratings bump not seen in several years. Strong advertising and subscriber fee projections, meanwhile, yielded the expectation of continued revenue growth for the cable news networks.
Digital News Audience: Fact Sheet
As digital audiences expand and move beyond news websites to social media, mobile apps, podcasting and even email newsletters, news publishers are making an effort to be in those places as well. This often means, though, ceding more control to tech companies such as Apple and Facebook, both financially and in the ability to systematically measure one’s reach.
Pew Research Center Releases State of the News Media 2016
Eight years after the Great Recession sent the U.S. newspaper industry into a tailspin, the pressures facing Americaâs newsrooms have intensified to nothing less than a reorganization of the industry itself, one that impacts the experiences of even those news consumers unaware of the tectonic shifts taking place. Read More
Public Broadcasting: Fact Sheet
Updated June 16, 2016: This fact sheet has been updated to clarify information about NPR. Public media in the U.S. is chiefly represented by two networks. On the audio side, NPR and its large family of member stations deliver news and other content to local communities over the airwaves and through smartphones and computers. On the television side, PBS and its network of local stations broadcast educational, cultural and news content – including through its flagship national newscast, PBS NewsHour.
State of the News Media 2016
Eight years after the Great Recession sent the U.S. newspaper industry into a tailspin, the pressures facing America’s newsrooms have intensified to nothing less than a reorganization of the industry itself, one that impacts the experiences of even those news consumers unaware of the tectonic shifts taking place. In 2015, the newspaper sector had perhaps the worst year since the recession and its immediate aftermath.
Digital News Revenue: Fact Sheet
In 2015, mobile advertising spending in the U.S. across all categories (including news) overtook desktop advertising spending. The growth in mobile pushed total spending on digital advertising to its highest point in the past six years. Video advertising continued to grow as well, with an uptick reminiscent of the early days of mobile growth. Ad spending on video still trails that on banner ads, but the gap is narrowing.
Podcasting: Fact Sheet
Last updated June 2016 Podcasting continued to grow in both audience and programming in 2015, though listening is still limited to a minority of the American public, and roughly half of the country is not even familiar with the term “podcasting.” Podcast producers continued to experiment with potential revenue streams during the year, while some in the industry took steps to try to begin to move beyond downloading as the standard of measurement for listenership.
1. Reddit news users more likely to be male, young and digital in their news preferences
While just 4% of U.S. adults report using Reddit, about seven-in-ten of these users (78%) get news on the site. Overall, 2% of U.S. adults get news on Reddit. Both Reddit users in general and users who get news on the site tend to be young, male, and to self-identify as liberal at higher rates than the overall public. About seven-in-ten (71%) of Reddit news users are men, 59% are between the ages of 18 and 29, and 47% identify as liberal, while only 13% are conservative (39% say they are moderate).
Nearly Eight-in-Ten Reddit Users Get News on the Site
The online discussion forum, Reddit, launched in 2005, is proving to be one of the more news-oriented social spaces on the Web. While it reaches a relatively small slice of the population, a large majority of its users report getting news there, and Reddit can drive substantial attention to news events.
Reddit news users more likely to be male, young and digital in their news preferences
While just 4% of U.S. adults report using Reddit, about seven-in-ten of these users (78%) get news on the site. Overall, 2% of U.S. adults get news on Reddit. Both Reddit users in general and users who get news on the site tend to be young, male, and to self-identify as liberal at higher rates than the overall public. About seven-in-ten (71%) of Reddit news users are men, 59% are between the ages of 18 and 29, and 47% identify as liberal, while only 13% are conservative (39% say they are moderate).
Seven-in-Ten Reddit Users Get News on the Site
Interest in Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was clear among Reddit users well in advance of primary season Updated Edition, May 26, 2016: This new edition of our February 2016 report contains updated survey data. It takes into account newer weighting measures that the Pew Research Center has adopted for its American Trends Panel. Details on the weighting are provided in the appendix.
In 21 states, no local paper has a DC reporter
Recent shifts in the media landscape have meant big changes within the Washington press corps – including a decline in the number of Washington-based reporters who work for local newspapers. Between 2009 and 2014, the number of D.C.-based reporters for local newspapers around the country who are accredited by the Senate to cover Congress declined by 11%, according to data from the U.S. Senate Press Gallery, which accredits Capitol Hill journalists.
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