
Times, They Are a Changin’
News is changing. Where we get our news is changing. And the amount of time we spend with news is changing.
Our need for news is changing: Millennials consume 30% less news than people over the age of 38.
The fact is that people consume news from a variety of outlets.
That means the dilution begins to impact all media. Audiences for all news media dropped last year, except for radio (mostly bolstered by National Public Radio and Public Radio International). Granted, there was some postelection letdown on news viewing, but for some, this trend is worrisome.
Yet take a look at our news outlets: Most remain unchanged for the past 30 years. A newspaper looks the same. A TV newscast looks the same. News hole. Weather hole. Sports hole. Weather kicker. It’s the same stuff, different day.
Innovation is needed in news. The only signs of innovation are in the digital coverage from the New York Times. When you do the same thing over and over again and expect different results, that is the news media watching interest fall.