Newspaper journalists’ digital appetite.

America’s newspaper journalists are eager to compete in the digital world and want their newsrooms to speed up the transition from print to digital, according to this study of almost 3,800 journalists at 79 newspapers.

The Media Management Center surveyed print, digital, and hybrid journalists in a cross section of U.S. newsrooms, asking them about their digital habits at work and at home, where they want their newsrooms and careers to go, and how well their leaders are doing in managing the tumultuous changes in the news industry.

The survey finds that almost half of the journalists believe that their newsroom’s transition from print to digital is moving too slowly. It classifies the journalists into six types based on their desire for digital change, ranging from the Digitals, who already spend a majority of their time online, to the frustrated Major Shift profile, who are currently doing the least digital work but would like to increase it by five times, to the Turn Back the Clock contingent, who long for a return to print. The Turn Back the Clock segment represented only 6% of the journalists surveyed; the largest contingent, at 50%, fell into the Moderately More profile, which would like to double their current digital activities to achieve a 50-50 split with their print efforts.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study finds major gaps between how newsroom managers think they are performing and how their staff view their actions. But some of the most critical leadership challenges can be remedied without extra money and resources. And despite the turmoil in the industry, the vast majority of the journalists surveyed reported that they were still satisfied with their jobs and believed they would be in the news business two years from now.

To download white paper CLICK on link below:
http://www.mediamanagementcenter.org/research/lifebeyondprint.pdf>