And now the bad news: it’s not just print revenue drying up… Despite signs of economic recovery after the global financial crisis there are still bleak years ahead for the US media industry, according to the just-released report by the Pew Research Center. For media businesses the world over it makes for grim reading.

The annual State of the News Media Report forecasts another year of change in the world’s largest media market, foreshadowing similar instability for the Australian media industry. In particular, the report confirms what many in the industry have known for some time: revenues of traditional media are in free fall, with digital media ready to assume top dog status with audiences and advertisers.

Newspapers are continuing to bleed readers and advertisers. Industry-wide circulation fell 10.6% from 2009; down 25.6% since 2000. Advertising revenue plummeted by 26%, as advertisers look elsewhere to capture an audience that continues to fracture.

The report also details the extensive cost cutting brought on by the dive in revenue. The Pew Research Center found newsrooms across the country were decimated, with 5,900 full-time jobs lost. Newspapers now spend $US1.6 billion less annually on reporting and editing than they did 10 years ago, which amounts to a cut of around 30%.

Not that online media is booming. Most people merely graze the internet for the news they like, the report found, rather than rely on primary sources. Only 35% of those surveyed could identify their favourite news website and — in a blow to many newspaper proprietors’ pay wall plans — just 19% would continue to visit that site if it locked off content.

Even online advertising dropped in the last year, falling by 4.6% — the first fall since 2002. And further growth in online advertising looks slim, with 79% of internet users saying they never or have rarely clicked on an online ad. — Crikey intern Tom Cowie

Google.cn may be shut down in China …

“Google appears increasingly likely to close down its Chinese-language search engine, in a step that would remove one of the last major foreign players from the world’s most populous and fastest-growing internet market.” — The Australian

… but state-run news says search engine has not halted censorship

“Google China said on Monday that it is complying with regulations to censor search results on its website, although earlier reports said the company plans to stop doing so as negotiations with the government are reportedly at a stalemate. Marsha Wang, spokesperson for Google China, said the company is providing filtered search results on Google.cn” — China Daily

I’m no enemy of the internet, Conroy insists

“Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has hit back at a new report listing Australia as a potential internet enemy. Press freedom advocacy group Reporters without Borders released their Enemies of the Internet report last Friday, to coincide with World Day Against Cyber Censorship.” — Sydney Morning Herald

Twitter co-founder says Great Firewall of China will fall

“Twitter co-founder Evan Williams told a gathering of the technology faithful on Monday that notorious censorship firewalls in countries such as China will give way to online innovations. — AFP

Telegraph‘s Piers Akerman defamed Mamdouh Habib: court

“The NSW Court of Appeal has reversed an earlier judgment … by Justice Peter McClellan, which favoured The Daily Telegraph. The appeal court’s ruling today gives Mr Habib, a former Guantanamo Bay inmate, the right to compensation from the newspaper’s publisher, Nationwide News.” — News.com.au

Spinning the Media: the Google News example

“To try to build a data point on that question, I chose a single big story and read every single version listed on Google News to see who was doing the work. Out of the 121 distinct versions 11% included at least some original reporting.” — Nieman Journalism Lab

A Google news tax for local papers?

“Google and other websites that carry news they do not produce should be taxed and the money generated used to prop up local newspapers, says a report which warns control of the media is concentrated in too few hands.” — The Guardian