“The problem facing American journalism is not fundamentally an audience problem or a credibility problem,” according to the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism. “It is a revenue problem.” Quality journalism is an essential public service and has always been subsidized. But with newspaper ad revenues plummeting 23 percent in the last two years, the ad-subsidy model no longer works. Online news Web traffic, on the other hand, has jumped 19 percent in the last two years. “Freedom of the press” from government censorship means little without preservation of the fourth estate.
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