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Speaking of scale

11 comments on Speaking of scale

Speaking of scale

: The American Society of Newspaper Editors just reported that the number of newspaper journalists in America fell from 56,393 to 54,134 over the last four years.

In the last year, the number of bloggers roughly doubled to more than 8 million. OK, so say that only half of them are active. That’s 4 million. Then say that only — pick a number — 10 percent of them even write about anything involving news. That would be 400,000.

If the news business can harnass the efforts of some of that number — helping to support them with training, content, promotion, revenue — imagine how news could grow.

11 responses to “Speaking of scale”

  1. tony Avatar
    tony

    how about this exercise:
    count how many print journalists you can name in three minutes
    then count how many bloggers you can name in three minutes.

  2. Alan Gutierrez Avatar
    Alan Gutierrez

    You know, I’m wondering.
    If there are 8 million bloggers, why does it always seem to get so quiet of the weekend?

  3. Matt Welch Avatar
    Matt Welch

    Until I see some methodology from ASNE, I would treat those numbers with extreme skepticism.
    Why? Because it’s a “census” — researchers asked 1,413 daily newspapers (or “the 1,413 newspapers,” as they erroneously put it), and 926 responded. What to do about the uncounted 487?

    The data from newspapers that returned the survey are used to project the numbers for nonresponding newspapers in the same circulation range.

    That might be fine, if papers with similar circulation sizes had similar staffing sizes. Which they did, until 2000 or so, when new dailies started springing up like mushrooms, reaching high circulation figures with newsrooms the fraction of the size.
    It would be erroneous to count the Boston Metro as if it were the Boston Herald, staffing wise. And possibly of more pressing concern, it would be inaccurate to speak of “the 1,413 newspapers,” if the Boston Metro, and the scores of newspapers like it, were not counted by the survey at all. I’ve asked the ASNE for the methodology, and am still waiting to hear back.

  4. Serdar Kaya Avatar
    Serdar Kaya

    I find it quite questionable to half the figure of 8 million, and then going for one tenth of it in order to reach the result of 400,000.
    There’s got to be a more reliable way of doing this.
    Maybe when Technorati provides better tools, we will know.

  5. Michael Zimmer Avatar
    Michael Zimmer

    Did the number of bloggers double in the last year, or the number of blogs?
    The ease at which you divine statistics out of the air to make a point reminds me of this post.

  6. Michael Zimmer Avatar
    Michael Zimmer

    Tony: is name recall/recognition supposed to be a measure of quality?

  7. Jeff Jarvis Avatar
    Jeff Jarvis

    And Michael, the way you can be snotty and dismissive and self-righteous saying anything amazes me.
    Hey, Mr. Communiations Scholar, couldn’t you have said that differently? More cordially? More civilly? Couldn’t you have just said: “Don’t assume that new blogs equals new bloggers.”
    That would be a valuable contribution to a conversation.
    But, no, you have some need to put down and show off. I’d link to other comments, as you link to an earlier post, to try to demonstrate that. But I don’t have the time and the point is the point: Can you try to be nicer?

  8. Michael Zimmer Avatar
    Michael Zimmer

    Sorry to offend. Just questioning where the 50% active and 10% news-related stats came from, and cautioning against using “flawed analyses that turn into accepted wisdom.” I’ll adjust my tone.

  9. MMM Avatar
    MMM

    Why only limit 10% of blogs to news? Just because it is news most of us don’t care to read doesn’t make it non-news. I mean if Britney’s pregnancy is news…what isn’t?

  10. tony Avatar
    tony

    “is name recall/recognition supposed to be a measure of quality?”
    of course not. but what it might be a measure of is the declining popularity of print journalism and the continuing growth of new media.
    when you can figure out a way to measure quality of either blogs or msm let me know.

  11. Michael Zimmer Avatar
    Michael Zimmer

    “when you can figure out a way to measure quality of either blogs or msm let me know.”
    indeed.