Citizen jounalism web site complement

34 - Newspaper Research Journal • Vol. 31, No. 2 • Spring 2010

Citizen Journalism Web Sites
Complement Newspapers
by Stephen Lacy, Margaret Duffy, Daniel Riffe, Esther Thorson and
Ken Fleming

A content analysis of 86 citizen blog sites, 53
citizen news sites and 63 daily newspaper sites
indicated that citizen journalism sites, including
both news and blog sites, differed significantly from
newspaper sites.

T he migration of media to the Internet and the deep recession that started
in 2008 has had an exponential impact on the traditional daily newspaper
industry. Although readers appear to be making the slow transition to digital
“newspapers,”1 advertising lineage is not.2 The result has been the disappear-
ance of public newspaper companies such as Knight Ridder and the Tribune
Company, the filing for bankruptcy by other newspaper companies and a
continuing decline in newsroom personnel.3
As a result of these two forces, observers in 2009 expressed concerns about
the survival of newspapers.4 But if major players like Knight Ridder and Tri-
bune make the biggest business-page headlines, other observers speculate on
who will provide the community information needed by citizens of individual
communities.
Some academics and industry analysts have suggested that online citizen
journalism might evolve and develop to the point of compensating for de-

__________________________________________

Lacy is a professor in the School of Journalism at Michigan State University. Riffe
is the Richard Cole Eminent Professor in the College of Journalism and Mass
Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Duffy is an
associate professor, Thorson is a professor and Fleming is the director of the Center
for Advanced Social Research. They are in the School of Journalism at the University
of Missouri. Funding for this research was provided by the John S. and James L.
Knight Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Lacy, Duffy, Riffe, Thorson and Fleming: Citizen Journalism Web Sites - 35

clining community coverage resulting from decreased newspaper reporting
resources.5
This study aims to explore this possibility by using content analysis and
other data to evaluate whether citizen journalism Web sites have the potential
actually to be such substitutes for the information currently provided by daily
newspapers’ Web sites. The evaluation begins with a foundation in media
economics theory and then examines key attributes—timeliness and structure
of both citizen journalism and traditional daily newspaper sites—to determine
if the sites resemble each other enough to possibly fulfill similar functions for
readers.

Theoretical Framework
Neoclassical economic theory states that demand is a function of a product’s
price, the price of complements and substitutes, individuals’ income and taste6
but not all these factors apply equally here.
In the short-run, for example, individual income would not affect the
substitution of citizen journalism for traditional newspaper Web sites because
an individual’s income would be unaffected by such a choice. A person with a
$50,000 annual income will still have that income whether she or he substitutes
citizen journalism sites for traditional newspaper sites.
Second, because citizen journalism sites tend to be free and most newspaper
sites remain free, with the exception of archives,7 the price cross-elasticity of
demand does not have a large effect on demand. If a substitute for a product
is free, there is no price to affect demand.
The role of the price of complements as a determinant of newspaper demand
remains unexplored. Complements are products that are consumed in conjunc-
tion with another product. For example, some people may have complementary
products they use with newspapers, coffee for example, but the relationship
between reading newspapers and consuming a complementary product vary
from person to person and from time to time for the same person.
Research indicates that the price of newspapers is fairly inelastic.8 Changes
in price have traditionally had little impact on total demand because many mar-
kets lack close substitutes for newspapers. In addition, the price of newspapers
remains relatively low compared to other products. In short, the absence of a
significant role for price and income suggests that the content of the newspaper
and reader taste have the greatest impact on individual newspaper demand.9
Unfortunately, neoclassical economic theory assumes taste is constant and
provides little help in analyzing substitutes on the basis of taste. However,
media economics research and theory have addressed this issue.
In a model based on the theory of monopolistic competition,10 Lacy posited
that people evaluate media products on the basis of attributes.11 Product attri-
butes take a variety of forms, such as the nature of stories, the structure of the
media product and the accessibility of the material online, among others. The


term content is used in the model to include presentation elements as well as
the symbolic presentation of information. The attributes that are important to
any given individual vary. Willingness to substitute one product for another
depends on whether the attributes of the first product adequately meet the
person’s needs and wants. To be a substitute, a media product’s attributes
must fulfill the same functions as attributes of the original media product. For
example, The New York Times Web site is a good substitute for CNN for some-
one who uses both for the surveillance function and checks on the latest news
throughout the day.
Although the functions of a set of content attributes can vary from per-
son to person, the levels of variation are constrained by the content itself. A
city council story cannot satisfy a person seeking a story about a professional
basketball game. Similar content in two media products is more likely to meet
the same needs and wants than is dissimilar content. Because substitutability
is anchored in aspects of content, content analysis can be used to measure po-
tential substitutability.
However, the question that needs addressing is: What types of attributes
are important for determining the substitutability of citizen journalism Web
sites and traditional newspaper sites?
Two types of attributes come to mind immediately: timeliness and the
nature of the Web site. A potentially substitutable Web site with characteristics
similar to the original site is more likely to serve similar functions and require
less investment in time. News products also have time attributes. Publication
cycle—hourly, daily or weekly—is a product attribute that affects substitut-
ability.12 To substitute for a daily newspaper, citizen journalism sites need to be
timely and predictable in posting content. Web sites with irregular and erratic
postings will likely not be acceptable substitutes for daily newspaper sites.

Literature Review
Much of the literature about online citizen journalism falls into three
types:
• Explorations of the Web’s potential for citizen journalism
• Descriptions of the nature of online citizen journalism
• Description of Web site characteristics that people use and want
In early discussions of online citizen journalism, observers saw a promising
alternative to the powerful journalistic gatekeeper. For example, Glaser said in
2004 that he believed citizen journalists would instead function as “shepherds”
who would encourage and welcome individual citizens’ reports and com-
ments.13 Gillmor called this grassroots journalism,14 while others in 2007, using
software development terminology, called it “open source journalism.”15 Still
others saw citizen journalism as a vehicle to bring together different kinds of
content: traditional mainstream news, opinion and commentary and a forum
for sharing and discussing.16


Other studies have examined the nature of online news. Soon after news-
papers started going online, Tankard and Ban found few online news sites
offering significant levels of interactivity and technological richness.17 Even in
2004, Massey’s study of a convenience sample of 38 online newspapers revealed
few online newspapers providing sophisticated multimedia context.18 A few
years later, in a study of 42 online newspapers, Tremayne, Weiss and Aves found
increasing use of video, especially in stories about accidents, crime, sports and
weather.19 Greer and Mensing also found growth in interactivity and multimedia
in 1997 to 2003 online newspapers.20
However, these studies did not directly address citizen journalism. A
2009 article examined 64 citizen journalism sites in 15 cities and found that a
majority (60 percent) of the sites sought citizen participation.21 The sites pro-
vided limited interactivity possibilities, and 14 percent ceased to exist within
six months. The study also found many differences between citizen blog and
citizen news sites.
Rosenberry22 examined 47 online newspaper sites with analysis based on
Entman’s23 core functions of news that deal primarily with public policy, politics
and participation. He identified various participatory features such as citizen
blogs, online letters and polls, external links, forums and message boards. Of
13 features, more than half of the sites offered only three and one-third offered
six; 89 percent used online letters.24
Other research more relevant to the substitutability thesis has explored
what people expect from online journalism. A 2009 Pew-funded study found
that 44 percent of heavy users of online news had customizable Web pages. One
in three said they watched video news clips, 24 percent listened to newscasts
and 27 percent reported emailing stories to others in the past week.25 Tremayne
has shown how links to internal and external sources can provide a “web of
context” for news,26 by linking previous stories and related materials on the
site or linking to other news sites, databases, or dictionaries. Web marketers
emphasize that users demand site interactivity, including information retrieval,
social interaction and problem-solving.27

Research Questions
Despite the number of research articles describing online journalism, little
research exists about the substitutability of citizen Web sites for traditional
newspaper sites. McManus anticipated this substitutability phenomenon when
he said:

The future of blogs will have arrived when you check your favorite blog for
sports news in the morning, instead of your local paper.28

However, given the absence of previous research, this study will pose re-
search questions, rather than testing hypotheses. These questions will address


three types of attributes and, based on a 2009 study,29 differentiate citizen news
sites and citizen blog sites.
First, an important element of the daily newspaper has been regularity of
availability. Publication cycle affects demand.30 For a citizen journalism site to
be a substitute for a daily newspaper site, its publication cycle would need to
be similar. Thus,

RQ1:
Do citizen blog sites publish content on a daily basis?

RQ2:
Do citizen news sites publish content on a daily basis?
Previous research indicates that many visitors desire interactivity, linkage
and multimedia attributes on their news Web sites.31 For a citizen news or blog
site to be a substitute for a daily newspaper site, its ease of use and access to
information should be similar. Thus,

RQ3:
How similar are citizen blog sites to daily newspaper Web sites?

RQ4:
How similar are citizen news sites to daily newspaper Web sites?

Method
This study involved four steps.
• Selection of 46 metropolitan media markets
• Identification of online citizen and daily newspaper sites in those mar-
kets
• Application of a content analysis protocol to study online citizen journal-
ism
• A visit to citizen news and blog sites to check for timeliness
Forty-six markets were randomly collected from three city sizes (15 each
from large, medium and small markets) as identified by the 2000 census for the
280 Census-defined Metropolitan Statistical Areas with 50,000 or more house-
holds. No markets smaller than 50,000 households were selected because it was
assumed—and later supported by results—that the existence and number of
citizen journalism sites were correlated with market size. Large metro areas
(n=37) were Census-defined as those having 507,000 to 2.2 million households,
medium metro areas (n=129) were those having 100,000 to 506,000 households
and small metro areas (n=111) had 50,000 to 99,000 households.
In addition, one extra large market—Chicago—was randomly selected from
among New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. These three markets are consider-
ably larger and more complex in their political and media systems and were,


therefore, more likely to have citizen journalism sites. The three were placed
in a separate category and one was randomly selected.
To qualify for inclusion, each market had to have at least one site meeting
the definition of “citizen journalism,” identified with a specific local geographic
area. Local was defined as being at the metropolitan, county, city or neighbor-
hood levels. Additionally, the site had to have a significant portion of its content
be original and provided by volun-
teers or community members, not
professional journalists. Citizen
journalism sites were further di-
vided into citizen news sites and
citizen blog sites. This was based Newspaper sites were
on self-identification of the sites more likely to have contact
by examining the “About,” FAQ
and other informational sections information, a wide range
of the sites. of electronic distribution
Inclusion screening began with
three sources that have lists of citi- technology and more
zen journalism sites: Placeblogger interactive elements.
(http://www.placeblogger.com/),
Knight Citizen News Network
Daily newspaper sites
(http://www.kcnn.org/) and Cy- allowed more uploading
perjournalism.net (http://www. opportunities than did
cyberjournalist.net). In addition,
Web searches were run to identify citizen blog sites, but not
additional sites with the goal of more than citizen news
being as inclusive as possible.
However, several blogs turned out sites.
to be about hobbies, personal expe-
riences or other topics that did not
qualify for citizen journalism.
The procedure identified 53
citizen news sites and 86 citizen
blog sites in the 46 markets. In ad-
dition, the 63 Web sites of all daily newspapers located in the 46 markets were
also sampled.
A content analysis protocol was developed to analyze site attributes in order
to answer the questions about the similarity of citizen journalism and traditional
newspaper sites. The protocol involved coding sites for a variety of presentation,
linkage, financial support and citizen participation or involvement attributes.
Some of the attributes used here were taken from Rosenberry and others were
added by the authors.32 Three coders each coded 363 site units. Scott’s Pi was
used to check reliability. Of the 19 site variables, four fell between .72 and .8,
13 fell between .8 and .9 and two were between .9 and 1.0.33


To answer RQ1 and RQ2 about timeliness, the citizen news and blog sites
were visited during June and July 2009, about a year after the original downloads
from the sites. The sites were visited randomly and each was checked for the
date of its most recent posting. Inactive sites were also noted. The operational
measure of timeliness was calculated by subtracting the date of visit from the
most recent posting date on the opening page of the site. For example, if a site
was visited on June 15 and the last posting was June 15, timeliness = 0. If the
site was visited on June 20 and the last posting was June 15, timeliness = 5. The
lower the number, the more timely the postings.
Because this was a random sample, data were analyzed using Chi-square
and differences in proportion statistics to test whether the differences likely
existed in the population from which the data were drawn. Statistical signifi-
cance was set at p < .05 to determine if the citizen journalism sites and stories
differed from the traditional newspaper sites and stories in the 280 MSAs from
which the citizen news and blog sites were sampled.

Findings
RQ1 asks if citizen blog sites published content on a daily or timely basis.
Of the 85 citi-
zen blog sites,
27.1 percent had Table 1
published the Most Recent Postings on Citizen News and Blog Sites
day of the visit
Citizen Citizen Total
and 55.3 percent News Sites Blog Sites
had published
during the past Yesterday 28.8% 27.1% 27.7%
week. [See Table One to seven days old 44.2% 28.2% 34.3%
Eight to 14 days 3.8% 10.6% 8.0%
1] Another 10.6 15 to 30 days 3.8% 7.1% 5.8%
percent had pub- 31 and 120 days 1.9% 11.8% 8.0%
lished within the More than 120 days or no
past two weeks. longer online 17.3% 15.3% 16.1%
The majority of N 52 85 137
the citizen blog Chi-square = 8.81, d.f. = 5, p = .117
sites were not
timely compared
to daily newspaper sites.

RQ2 asks if the citizen news sites published content daily.
Table 1 shows that 28.8 percent of the sites published the day of the visit, and
73 percent had posted within the previous week. These data show that citizen
news sites were slightly timelier than citizen blog sites, but the vast majority
was not timely if daily posting is the standard for timeliness.


Table 2
Web Site Characteristics on Daily Newspaper, Citizen News
and Citizen Blog Sites (Percentages of Sites with Characteristic

Characteristic Daily Citizen Citizen
Newspapers News Blog
(n=63) Sites Sites
(n=53) (n=86)
Site contact
Email contact provided 98 91 28
Phone number provided 92 28 8
Address provided 79 32 7

Distribution systems
RSS feed on the site 94 77 90
MP3/iPod feed available 27 15 6
Content delivered to cell phone 41 6 2
Able to email individual stories
to third party 86 30 23

Social interaction
Polls or surveys present 38 9 13
Forums present 57 47 34

Citizen uploading ability
Ability to upload information about
community activities 67 70 14
Ability to upload news/feature
stories 44 62 13
Ability to upload “letters to the
“editor” 64 40 15
Ability to upload audio 3 28 1
Ability to upload photographs 49 45 9
Ability to upload video 24 34 1

RQ3 asked how similar citizen blog sites are to traditional newspaper sites.
Table 2 presents characteristics of daily newspaper Web sites, citizen news
sites and citizen blog sites. The standard error of proportion for comparing the
newspaper and blog sites is 4 percent meaning any difference of 8 percent or
more between the two types of sites is significant (p < .05).
Of 15 attributes in Table 2, citizen blog and daily newspaper sites differ
on 13. The only differences that were not statistically significant are RSS feeds
and ability to upload audio. In every other way, the two types of sites differed
significantly. In general, newspaper Web sites provided both more contact
information and more distribution systems. Newspaper sites generally had
more interactivity (e.g., polls, forums and the ability to upload material). Put
simply, daily newspaper sites are more sophisticated technologically than
citizen blog sites.


Table 3 data concern the use of hyperlinks to other sites. Hyperlinks do
not require extensive technology, meaning citizen blogs could afford to use
links as much as newspaper sites. The two types of sites differ at the p < .05
level for three of the four groups of link measures. Citizen blog sites generally
have more links to local sites than do the daily newspaper Web sites. A larger
percentage of citizen blog sites link to other citizen news and blog sites than
do daily newspapers sites. The two types of sites did not differ on links to
commercial Web sites.

RQ4 asked how similar citizen news site are to daily newspaper sites.
Table 2 data allow comparison between the two types of sites on the 15
attributes of Web sites. The standard error of proportion for the two types of
sites equals 4.6 percent. Any difference exceeding 9.2 percent is statistically
significant.
Citizen news sites differed from daily newspaper sites in 13 of the 15 at-
tributes. The two types of sites failed to differ only in email contact provided
(newspaper sites, 98 percent; citizen news sites, 91 percent) and ability to upload
photographs (newspaper sites, 49 percent; citizen news sites, 45 percent). Despite
these differences, the percentages for the citizen news sites were closer to the
newspaper Web sites than were the percentages on citizen blog sites.
Table 3 shows statistically significant differences in three of the four linkage
groups. More citizen news sites linked to local sites, to citizen news sites and
to citizen blog and aggregate sites than did newspaper sites. The two types of
sites did not differ in number of links to commercial journalism sites.

Discussion
These data indicate that citizen journalism Web sites (news and blog sites) are
generally not acceptable substitutes for daily newspaper Web sites. Only slightly
more than a quarter of the citizen news and blog sites published the same day
they were visited, which indicates most are not as timely as daily newspaper
sites. Even if a citizen news or blog site has daily postings, it is unlikely that such
sites have as many items as daily newspapers have because citizen journalism
sites depend mostly on volunteers rather than paid journalists.
The daily newspaper sites also differed significantly from the citizen news
and citizen blog sites in a number of Web site and content attributes. Newspaper
sites were more likely to have contact information, a wide range of electronic
distribution technology and more interactive elements. Daily newspaper sites
allowed more uploading opportunities than did citizen blog sites, but not more
than citizen news sites.
Newspaper sites also differed significantly in terms of linking to other Web
sites. As a rule, citizen news and blog sites used more external links than did
the newspaper Web sites and were more likely to link to local Web sites than
were newspaper sites.


Table 3
Comparison of Website Links on Daily Newspaper, Citizen News
and Citizen Blog Sites (Percentages of Sites with Types of Links)

Characteristic Daily Citizen Citizen
Newspapers News Sites Blog Site
(n=63) (n=53) (n=86)

Local sites
No local site external links 27 30 21
1 to 10 local external links 57 38 46
11 or more external links 16 32 33

Newspaper-blog X2 (d.f.= 2) = 7.9, p < .025
Newspaper-news site X2 (d.f.=2) = 9.3, p < .01

Commercial news sites
No commercial legacy
site links 73 72 65
1 or more commercial
legacy site links 27 28 35


Citizen news sites
No citizen news site links 86 55 58
1 to 10 citizen news
site links 14 30 40
11 or more citizen
news site links 0 15 2

Newspaper-blog X (d.f.= 2) = 12.2, p < .001
2


Citizen blog or aggregation site
No citizen blog or
aggregation site links 84 48 17
1 to 10 citizen blog or
aggregate site links 11 26 39
11 or more citizen blog or
aggregate site links 5 26 44


The data also suggest at least four observations about citizen news and
blog sites and their relationship to daily newspaper sites. First, the citizen
news sites and citizen blog sites appear to be very different. The citizen news
sites resemble daily newspaper sites more than do blog sites, which indicates


clearly that blog and news sites are not necessarily substitutes for each other
within a local community.
Second, the primary differences between daily newspaper and citizen news
and blog sites probably reflect a difference in resources. Timeliness requires a
newsroom that interacts with the community on a regular basis, and, as a result,
news stories typically require greater investment of time than do opinion pieces.
The greater number of technological distribution systems (iPod, RSS, etc.) on daily
newspaper sites also indicates a higher level of investment. The overall higher
level of investment at daily newspaper sites results from having a traditional
print version and from the larger newsroom and budgets associated with being
a commercial enterprise. This difference in resources will likely perpetuate the
inability of citizen news sites to become substitutes for daily newspaper sites,
even though resources continue to decline at commercial newspapers.
Although only 27.7 percent of the sites posted an article the day before the
random visit, 71 percent of the citizen news sites and 55 percent of the citizen
blog sites had posted within the past seven days of the visit. On this attribute,
citizen news sites more closely resemble weekly newspapers—perhaps a func-
tion of lacking the resources needed to be timely. Weekly newspapers typically
require fewer resources than do dailies. This raises the possibility that citizen
news sites might be better substitutes for weekly newspaper sites than for daily
newspaper sites.
Finally, these data suggest that, like weeklies, citizen news and blog sites
can serve as complements to daily newspapers. They can provide opinion and
hyperlocal news that large dailies do not. Dailies have more resources, but they
tend to concentrate those resources on issues that affect larger geographic areas
in their markets. The dailies are less likely to cover details of a neighborhood
than are citizen news and blog sites, unless they actually imitate these citizen
sites. Perhaps serving as a complement better suits these citizen sites.
This study has its limits. The limited number of sites and lack of stories in
the content analysis call for an expanded analysis. Of course, larger samples
of sites would be useful, but the differences were large enough that a larger
sample would not likely affect the conclusions. Also, a survey of news consumers
would provide more detail about the degree that citizen journalism sites serve
as substitutes and complements for traditional news organization sites.
Despite its limits, the results suggest future areas of study. A more detailed
comparison of the story content produced by newspapers and citizen journalism
sites would provide more evidence about the level of substitutability between
the two. A study correlating newspaper print penetration and Web site visits
with the relative amount of newspaper local coverage—compared to citizen
journalism sites—swould provide an even better test of substitutability. Equally
useful would be a survey of community members about their perceptions of
newspaper and citizen journalism substitutability. Such a survey could address
whether community members see citizen journalism Web sites as substitutes
for weeklies and complements for dailies.


Notes
1. Eric Sass, “Total Newspaper Readership Grows,” Media Daily News, July 21, 2008, <http://
www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=86909> (July 16, 2009); Jeff
Sigmund, “Newspaper Web Site Audience Rises Twelve Percent in 2008,” Newspaper Association of
America, Jan. 29, 2009, <http://www.naa.org/PressCenter/SearchPressReleases/2009/NEWSPA-
PER-WEB-SITE-AUDIENCE-RISES.aspx> (July 17, 2009).
2. “U.S. Newspaper Ads to Decline 22% in 2009,” IT Facts, April 13, 2009, <http://www.
itfacts.biz/us-newspaper-ads-to-decline-22-in-2009/12955> (July 17, 2009); Robin Wauters, “From
Terrible to Terrifying: Newspaper Ad Sales Plummet #2.6 Billion in Q1 2009,” TechCrunch, June 2,
2009, <http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/02/from-terrible-to-terrifying-newspaper-ad-sales-
plummet-26-billion-in-first-quarter/> (July 17, 2009).
3. David B. Wilkerson, “Two More Newspaper File for Bankruptcy,” MarketWatch.com, Feb.
23, 2009, <http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.asp?StoryId={6318B42D-949B-4162-B3D5-
4A043E067193}> (July 17, 2009); “US Newsroom Employment Declines,” American Society of News
Editors, April 16, 2009, <http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?ID=7323> (July 17, 2009).
4. Robert MacMillan, “Newspapers: They’re *still* dying,” Reuter Blogs, June 4, 2009, <http://
blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2009/06/04/newspapers-theyre-still-dying/> (18 July 2009); John
Nichols and Robert W. McChesney, “The Life and Death of Great American Newspapers,” The
Nation, March 18, 2009, <http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090406/nichols_mcchesney?rel=rig
htsideaccordian> (July 18, 2009).
5. This discussion takes a variety of forms with much of it occurring online. We found no
empirical studies that tested the substitutability of citizen journalism and traditional newspapers.
Here is a sampling of the discussion: John Zhu, “Who Says Blogs Can Replace Newspapers?! Well
These People,” Matters of Varying Insignificance, April 4, 2009, <http://www.john-zhu.com/
blog/2009/04/08/who-says-blogs-can-replace-newspapers-well-these-people/> (July 19, 2009);
Josh Benton, “Citizen Journalism: Not There Yet,” Neiman Journalism Lab, Dec. 18, 2009, <http://
www.niemanlab.org/2008/12/citizen-media-not-there-yet/> (July 19, 2009); Alex Argote, “The
Awe-Inspiring Power of Citizen Journalism: New Media Phenomenon Will Eventually Replace the
Traditional Newspaper,” Ohmynews, Aug. 22, 2007, <http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/
article_view.asp?menu=&no=376838&rel_no=1&back_url=> (July 19, 2009).
6. George J. Stigler, The Theory of Price (Rev. ed.) (New York: The MacMillan Co., 1952).
7. Although many news organizations have called for a subscription model for online news,
few have been successful so far. The Little Rock Arkansas Democrat Gazette charges $4.95 per month
for an online-only subscription and the Wall Street Journal continues its subscription model, though
that model is evidently a matter of continuing debate internally. In 2007, the New York Times shut-
tered “TimesSelect” that charged for certain premium content. To date, few online news sites are
able to charge for content and readers are even resistant to free registration requirement. See Julie
Kosterlitz, “A Nonprofit Model for News: As the Newspaper and Broadcast Industries Shrink,
Philanthropic Ventures Seek to Rejuvenate News Reporting,” National Journal Magazine, Nov. 15,
2009, <http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere//> (July 12, 2009).
8. Regina Lewis, “Relation between Newspaper Subscription Price and Circulation, 1971-1992,”
Journal of Media Economics 8, no. 1 (1995): 24-41.
9. For a discussion of factors that affect demand, read Stephen Lacy and Todd F. Simon, The Eco-
nomics and Regulation of United States Newspapers (Norwoord, NJ: Ablex Publishing, 1993), 23-26.
10. Edward H. Chamberlin, The Theory of Monopolistic Competition, 8th ed. (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1962).
11. Stephen Lacy, “A Model of Demand for News: Impact of Competition on Newspaper
Content,” Journalism Quarterly 66, no. 1 (spring 1989): 40-48, 128.
12. Lacy and Simon, The Economics and Regulation.


13. Mark Glaser, “The New Voices: Hyperlocal Citizen Media Sites Want You to Write! Online
Journalism Review, Nov. 17, 2004, <http://www.ojr.org/ojr/glaser/1098833871.php> (March 29,
2009).
14. Dan Gillmor, We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People (Sebastopol,
CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc., 2004).
15. Clyde Bentley, Brian Hamman, Jeremy Littau, Hans Meyer, Brendan Watson and Beth
Walsh, “Citizen Journalism: A Case Study,” in Blogging, Citizenship, and the Future of Media, ed.
Mark Tremayne (New York: Routledge, 2007), 239-260.
16. Mark Deuze, “The Web and Its Journalisms: Considering the Consequences of Different
Types of News Media Online,” New Media and Society 5, no. 2 (June 2003): 203-230.
17. James W. Tankard and Hyun Ban, “Online Newspapers: Living Up to Their Potential?”
(paper presented to the annual conference of the AEJMC, Baltimore, Md. August 1998).
18. Brian L. Massey, “Examination of 38 Web Newspapers Shows Nonlinear Storytelling Rare,”
Newspaper Research Journal 26, no. 4 (fall 2004): 96-102.
19. Mark Tremayne, Amy Schmitz Weiss and Rosental Calmon Alves, “From Product to Ser-
vice: The Diffusion of Dynamic Content in Online Newspapers,” Journalism & Mass Communication
Quarterly 84, no. 3 (autumn 2007): 825-839.
20. Jennifer Greer and Donica Mensing, “The Evolution of Online Newspapers: A Longitudinal
Content Analysis, 1997-2003,” in Internet Newspapers: The Making of a Mainstream Medium, ed. Xigen
Li (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2006), 13-32.
21. Stephen R. Lacy, Daniel Riffe, Esther Thorson and Margaret Duffy, “Examining the Features,
Policies, and Resources of Citizen Journalism: Citizen News Sites and Blogs,” Web Journal of Mass
Communication Research, June 15, 2009, <http://www.wjmcr.org/> (July 11, 2009).
22. Jack Rosenberry, “Few Papers Use Online Techniques to Improve Public Communication,”
Newspaper Research Journal 26, no. 4 (fall 2005): 61-73.
23. Robert Entman, “The Nature and Sources of News,” in The Press, eds. Geneva Overholser
and Kathleen H. Jamieson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 48-65.
24. Rosenberry, “Few Papers Use.”
25. Project for Excellence in Journalism, State of the Media, 2009, March 2009, <http://www.
stateofthenewsmedia.com/2009/narrative_online_audience.php?cat=2&media=5> (July 12,
2009).
26. Mark Tremayne, “The Web of Context: Applying Network Theory to the Use of Hyperlinks
in Journalism on the Web,” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 81, no. 1 (spring 2004):
237-253.
27. Ralph F. Wilson, “Web Interactivity and Customer Focus,” About.com, 25 August 1996,
<http://onlinebusiness.about.com/b/2008/10/13/customers-want-social-media-interaction-from-
businesses.htm> (March 19, 2009); G. Go, “Customers Want Social Interaction from Businesses,
About.com, Oct. 13, 2008, <http://onlinebusiness.about.com/b/2008/10/13/customers-want-
social-media-interaction-from-businesses.htm> (March 19, 2009).
28. Richard McManus, “State of the Blogosphere,” Technorati, Sept. 26, 2008, <http://technorati.
com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere//> (July 12, 2009).
29. Lacy, Riffe, Thorson and Duffy, “Examining the Features.”
30. Lacy and Simon, The Economics and Regulation, 36.
31.Tremayne, “The Web of Context.”
32. Rosenberry, “Few Papers Use.”
33. The Scott’s Pi for the Web site variables are: email contact provided, .72; MP3/iPod feed
available, .77; content delivered to cell phones, .77; RSS feeds on site, .79; polls or survey presence,
.83; ability to upload news/feature stories, .85; ability to upload letters to the editor, .85; ability to
email individual stories, .86; forums present, .86; links to commercial Web sites, .86; links to citizen
news sites, .86; phone number provided, .87; address provided, .87; ability to upload photos, .87;
links to local sites, .88; ability to upload video, .89; ability to upload community activities informa-
tion, .89; ability to upload audio, .91; and links to citizen blogs, .93.

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