May 11, 2005 was not what most people would call an extraordinary day. A warm spell moved through the Northwest into the South. Rain pelted the Rust Belt, and it was still cold in the East.
The ethnic media continued to grow in 2005 with the continuing growth in immigration in the U.S. And while some of the data are soft, and there were even signs of declines in the circulation of print publications, the general picture was robust.
Beyond all the facts and figures concerning the American news media, there are the attitudes and opinions journalists themselves have about their industry and profession. This section from the State of the News Media 2004 report details the results of a survey of more than 500 national and local reporters, editors and executives. The survey was conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in collaboration with the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Committee of Concerned Journalists.
There were high hopes in many quarters of the newspaper industry in 2004. The 2000-2003 recession was expected to give way to an economic rebound. Publishers expected advertising revenue to come roaring back as it traditionally does in the early stages of a recovery. Investors, who had bid up stock prices based on newspapers’ steady profitability and cyclical nature, were expecting their ship to come in. Editors, faced with deep cuts in 2001 and flat staffing and budgets since, were looking for reinvestments in news gathering.