Study: shrinking newsrooms hurting papers' quality

The Web speeds delivery of news, allows interaction with readers and opens nearly infinite space for news.

"The downside is that is has eroded the advertising base in print publications, and that is by far the main source of revenue to pay for large news staffs," Ureneck said.

Editors see the ability to track readership of any specific story online as an advantage for improving content. It provides an "indisputable link between strong editorial content and the kind of higher readership that attracts advertisers," the study said.

The editors, 97 percent of whom said they are active in trying to develop new revenue streams, can then convince the advertising sales staff to become more targeted in selling to the Web.

Many said, though, that they were uncertain improved editorial content would ensure a bright future--especially since most organizations failed to anticipate the changes that have wracked newsrooms in recent years.

Only 5 percent of the editors surveyed said they were confident they could predict what the newsroom would look like in five years.

"I feel I'm being catapulted into another world, a world I don't really understand," Virginian-Pilot editor Denis Finley told PEJ. "Things are happening at the speed of light."

The results of the survey, conducted online by Princeton Survey Research Associates International between Jan. 29 and Feb. 29, include responses from over 50 percent of U.S. papers with 100,000 or more in circulation and more than 30 percent of papers with 50,000 to 100,000 in circulation.

(This version CORRECTS spelling of Denis in 27th paragraph). )