Nearly Half of America's Newspaper Reporters Want Their Companies to Speed Up The Transition from Print to the Web 

The Media Management Center (MMC) at Northwestern University has released an interesting and surprising study that found there isn't nearly as much resistance among print reporters to moving online as many thought. The report called "Life Beyond Print: Newspaper Journalists' Digital Appetite" was analyzed by MediaPost's Jack Loechner in a column he posted today. Loechner noted, "The study found that almost half of today's newspaper journalists think their newsroom's transition from print to digital is moving too slowly, as they have no trouble envisioning a career where news is delivered primarily online and to mobile devices instead of in print." 

MMC executive director Michael P. Smith said in the report that "For several years we have heard that it is the journalists' resistance to change that was holding newspapers back... this study shows that they are ready, and some are even impatient, for change." Unfortunately the owners of many newspapers have not been equally motivated even though they have now spent years watching online eat their lunch.

The study of almost 3,800 newsrooms employees found that many of them are heavily engaged in digital activities in their personal lives and fully understand the advantages of digital delivery. While the common perception is that print reporters are hostile to online media, the report says that only 20% of the newspaper workforce said they like things the way they are or yearn for "the good old days." 

Loechner wrote that half of newsroom workers say they want to do "Moderately More" online, arriving at something closer to an equal split with their print efforts. 11% of the workers said they wanted to see a the "Major Shift" and that they would "devote five times their current effort to online if given their druthers."

Desipte all of the turmoil in the newspaper industry, 77% of journalists said they are somewhat or very satisfied with their current jobs. 67% think it somewhat or very likely they will still be in the news business two years from now and 59% think they'll likely be with their same newspaper. The flip side of the latter question is that 41% of today's newspaper reporter don't think they will still be with their current employer just two years from now. With respect to the historic upheaval the web has created in traditional media, that is the most telling statistic in the report to me.