News in the News - Matthew Kearney

Welcome Matthew Kearney, our newest MediaBizBlogger.

The news industry has suffered blow after blow in recent years. From the heady days of the 50s thru 80s, the past decade has seen quite a change with TV newsrooms downsizing and newspapers teetering.

But some things never change……………

News is – without a doubt - a must have medium. Global events over the last few days prove it. Events have had us all keenly following the news from the pomp, circumstance and high fashion of the Royal Wedding to the high drama of Team 6's assault in Abbottabad. Human kind wants news: fast, accurate and informative.

But some things change a lot…………….

Nowhere in media has the digital revolution had more impact than in news. We now get our news in print and on TV but more and more time is now spent on desktops, lap-tops, tablets and smart phones.

The assault on Osama Bin Laden's compound first broke on twitter. The name of Kate Middleton's dress designer first broke online.

And the digital revolution just fuels the habit………

Discussions about wedding outfits (I'd never even heard of fascinators before, let alone the notion they could prompt hours of debate) are going on for days in the social media – from Facebook through the comment sections of news sites and on twitter. The desire to know more about Team 6 and how a town in Pakistan could be named Abbottabad need to be satiated (thank you Wikipedia).

So we Google, we tweet, we bookmark, we tune in. We have never spent more of our time immersed in news as now.

OK but haven't the events of the past few days have been extraordinary???????

Absolutely. But last month was extraordinary too. There was a civil war, a natural disaster, and the death of a screen icon (Libya, the Tsunami in Japan and Elizabeth Taylor respectively). The facts are newsworthy events are constantly occurring, the news habit is powerful within us, global events capture a global audience and modern technology is an amazing enabler to allow us to communicate, follow and debate.

So news is the perfect medium? Maybe that's going too far but news certainly keeps

Billionsof us highly engaged.That's a pretty powerful thing to be able to say.

And finally, some facts behind the rhetoric…………

* "There are many more ways to get the news these days, and as a consequence Americans are spending more time with the news than over much of the past decade. Digital platforms are playing a larger role in news consumption………………Adding in digital platforms, cell phones, social networks, and podcasts to how Americans consume media it increases the percentage of people who followed news this month up 25%, proving that more mediums mean more interest in news"
Source: PEW Research Study 2010

*"News of Osama bin Laden's death provided the Internet a major spike in traffic during the usually low news period of April/May. The traffic for news sites from May 1 – May 3 increased by over 42% YOY and 51% week over week."
Source: Akamai Net Usage 2011

* "Nearly 57 million Americans tuned into watch President Obama's speech regarding the death of Osama bin Laden on May 1st, this is a 48% increase of viewers over his televised August speech regarding Iraq."
Source: Nielsen Net Ratings 2011

* "Twitter experiences a 50% growth in tweets on May 1st into May 2nd, and many people found out about the death of bin Laden through social media."
Source: Akamai Net Usage 2011

Matthew Kearney has been working in the media in London and New York, in TV, cinema and in online for nearly 20 years. He joined the Daily Mail's leading news site MailOnline last year. Matthew can be reached atmatthewjkearney@gmail.com.

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