As Mainstream Exits D.C., Niche Media Tide Rises

[many a good man]

Source: Washington Post

The growing exodus of mainstream reporters from the nation's capital has ceded much of the turf to a new, more specialized kind of journalism.

Just as newspaper, magazine and television bureaus here are shrinking or shutting down at the dawn of the Obama administration, high-priced newsletters and trade publications are filling the breach. Climate Wire, an online newsletter launched last year, now has more Washington staffers -- 10 -- than Hearst Newspapers.

"This dramatically changes what gets covered and how," says Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which surveys the new landscape in a report released yesterday. "As the government is getting bigger and playing a larger role in our lives in an activist era, there are fewer reporters monitoring that on behalf of the general public.

"The niche media cover trees, not forests. . . . They're generally not involved in watchdog, exposé journalism that by its very existence is a check on malfeasance."

Thirty-two of the nation's newspapers, representing 23 states, had their own Washington bureaus last year -- fewer than half the number of the mid-1980s. The Newhouse and Copley chains closed their D.C. bureaus last year, and Cox is shutting its down in April. Time and Newsweek have 14 and 20 staffers here, respectively, a decline of more than half during the same period. The three broadcast networks had 51 journalists in Washington early last year -- down from 110 in 1985 -- and that was before the latest cutbacks.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/10/AR2009021003935_pf.html

---

The media landscape is shifting...and not necessarily for the better.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Interesting avatar!

ER: I don't like the avatar DU offers of me. I look like an old lady.
FDR: Well, you were an old lady when it was taken. I rather like mine.
ER: I mean, couldn't they get a younger picture of me?
FDR: I see someone has had the initiative to use Henry on one!
ER: Morgenthau?
FDR: Wallace, Old Girl!
ER: Sad they had to do it on their own. I mean, there are 20 John Kerrys and a Marilyn Monroe, which is all fine and good, but Myrna Loy and Katharine Hepburn were good Democrats and they don't have avatars.
FDR: You'd think Ickes would get one for his progressive policies, but noooo...
ER: Oh well, 'bravo' to many a good man for his avatar of Sec. Wallace.

[monmouth]

2. Wish I could K&R your great post. I'm a Roosevelt fan (FDR and Teddy)..n/t

[Captain Hilts]

9. Boo-yeah!

FDR: To think Captain Hilts needs to defend his interest in the Great Depression on DU!
ER: Why, Dear, that's crazy! There are so many parallels!
FDR: I know, dontcha love it? Everything old is new again! Good luck to Mr. Obama!
ER: Yes, well he will certainly need all our support.
FDR: Indeed he will. Hop on in the Obama bandwagon Babs!
ER: Hey! It's my 'bandwagen' move over and let me drive!

[many a good man]

4. LOL! Many a good man was often a topic of conversation between Franklin and Eleanor

But never me, personally! Thanks for the good laugh. However, I would have ended it this way:

ER: If you had only kept good old Henry on as your Vice President in forty-four, he'd be one of the most popular avatars on DU!


Now you've got me thinking of a TV show where all DU avatars are together at a party in liberal heaven engaging in the most splendid intercourse imaginable!

[Captain Hilts]

10. Good one. It's odd that Wallace, Hopkins, Ickes and Perkins don't have avatars.

As cabinet officials, they're pretty well known and all were true progressives. I adore reading about Ickes, though I didn't think Watson's biography of him was all that good. But, for a fun time, check for Wallace in the index of The Secret Diary of Harold Ickes. It's a really fun read. What a weird guy!

Funny you say many a good man was often a topic of conversation between Franklin and Eleanor. That photograph on the train is an interesting one that came to the fore a few years ago. The guy in the background was Eleanor's 'beau' through the bulk of the White House years.

I've read most of American Dreamer. I do find it odd that the visitor center in Hyde Park was named for him instead of the Morgenthaus. In the long run, Wallace was ticked off at both Franklin and Eleanor.

[UpInArms]

3. I found this sentence really not quite accurate:

"The niche media cover trees, not forests. . . . They're generally not involved in watchdog, exposé journalism that by its very existence is a check on malfeasance."

Somehow, I must have missed that "watchdog" media barking when Bush lied us into war, death, debt and the destruction of the Constitution.

[Spazito]

5. Hmmm, I can't remember when the mainstream reporters from...

Washington resembled this quote:

"The niche media cover trees, not forests. . . . They're generally not involved in watchdog, exposé journalism that by its very existence is a check on malfeasance."


The niche media may not be involved in watchdog, expose journalism that by its very existence is a check on malfeasance but neither have the mainstream reporters in, at the very least, the last eight years. The niche media certainly can't do worse than the mainstream reporters have done of late, imo.

[many a good man]

7. Baseline was the 90's

There were quite a few exposes on Clinton, as I recall.

[Tartiflette]

11. I think it will develop

seems to me we're seeing a slow transition from one type of media to another, and that this will bring about as-yet unexplored opportunites. It seems there isn't a lot of really good investigative work around for a number of reasons, not simply diminishing numbers, including consolidation of the "traditional" MSM by like-minded interest groups. The very nature of news gathering is changing, so to warn about the consequences of this change seems to be a little premature, as it is difficult to predict just how the future will pan out. We already see some fine work done by the so-called niche, and as one sees on-line "niche" sites like eg, HuffPo increase in size, they may also change in scope.

[Spazito]

13. I agree, it is ironic it is the MSM warning of the 'dangers' of the

niche media. The MSM drastically reduced and, in some cases completely wiped out, it's investigative arm years ago as it was not profit generating whereas infotainment was cheap to produce and easily sold. By their own actions, they have brought about their eventual demise and created a vacuum the niche media has very ably filled.

I welcome the new media and shed no tears at the demise of the old.

[Peace Patriot]

6. Reverse everything WaPo says about the media, and you probably have wisdom. nt

[GinaMaria]

8. Mainstream Media really worked for the * admin

involved in watchdog, exposé journalism that by its very existence is a check on malfeasance.

yeah right. That's what the mainstream media did with * and his buddies :sarcasm:

I welcome the change and hope there are more internet news sources in DC. Looking forward to new and different perspectives as opposed to the same old regurgitated crap. The mainstream media failed us. They deserve to go.

[llmart]

12. Me too.

I'm looking forward to all the old guard, corporate media outlets dying out like the dinosaurs once did. They "fell down on the job" once BushCo. intimidated and bullied them. They failed to do what they were supposed to do and left it to Internet sites such as DU to dig deep to find the truth and pass it around.

I, personally, can't wait to see FAUX "News" go away.