It's not that
the editors most responsible for foreign news at American newspapers
believe they are doing a good job, or even an adequate one, in delivering
foreign news to their readers. They don't.
And it's not that they believe their readers are disinterested. They
don't.
In fact, the editors said by a wide margin that their readers have a
deeper interest in foreign news than their newspapers are satisfying. And
a majority, 53 percent, said cost is a "major obstacle" to providing more
overseas reporting.
These are some of the results of a recently concluded survey of 218
editors conducted by Dwight L. Morris & Associates of Centreville,
Virginia, for the Pew International Journalism Program. Of the 218
editors, 72 were from newspapers with less than 50,000 circulation, 65
from papers with circulation between 50,000 and 100,000 and 81 from papers
with 100,000 or above.
Morris surveyed wire editors, foreign editors and others directly
responsible for the international report in their papers. He did not
survey top editors unless, as is the case at some of the smallest papers,
they make story-by-story decisions on foreign news.
This almost certainly played a role in the results. I have just
finished interviewing wire editors, foreign editors and top editors at a
number of papers, and I think it's fair to say that the editors who spend
all day worrying about foreign news feel more aggrieved about perceived
shortcomings in that area than news executives with broader domains.
While not so pleased with their own area, 88 percent of the editors
rated their papers excellent or good in meeting reader interest in sports.
I venture to guess from spending a lifetime in newsrooms that sports
editors would not have been that satisfied. Morris says that the foreign
editors might have a "tendency to be particularly dissatisfied with their
own world, frustrated by it. But all we can do is take their answers at
face value."
When asked how well their papers satisfied the interest of their
readers in foreign news, only 2 percent of the editors interviewed
responded "excellent" and 41 percent said "good." Another 44 percent said
"fair" and 12 percent said "poor." One percent didn't give an opinion.
Still, the editors interviewed were slightly more upbeat about their
own papers than about the media in general, including television. Asked to
rate the news media's overall coverage of foreign news, 5 percent said it
was "excellent" and 31 percent said "good." A majority, 54 percent, said
"fair," and 10 percent said "poor."
Editors at larger papers tended to be harsher about the media as a
whole and more satisfied with the performance of their own papers. For
example, 74 percent of those at the 100,000-plus papers said the media in
general were fair to poor in covering foreign news, while only 58 percent
were that negative at the other papers.
But in judging themselves, 64 percent of those at the smallest papers
said they were fair to poor as compared with 51 percent in the medium-size
papers and 53 percent at the largest.
Despite the poor grades, foreign and wire editors were about evenly
divided on whether their papers were making a mistake in not providing
more extensive foreign coverage. Some 54 percent thought their papers
contained the proper balance of news coverage, while 46 percent said they
should run more foreign news.
Virtually everyone (95 percent) agreed that interest in foreign news
had grown since September 11. And 78 percent said they have been given
more space for it, although most of that has gone for coverage of the war
on terrorism. Surprisingly, 19 percent of the editors said they received
no additional space for foreign news after September 11 and 3 percent said
they got less.
The editors expect both the increased interest and the increased space
to erode the further we get from September 11. Sixty-four percent expect
interest to decline while 25 percent think it won't.
Morris concludes that editors think the heightened interest will wane
because they don't think it was that deep in the first place. When readers
were asked if they were "very interested" in five news categories--local,
national, foreign, business and sports--only business ranked lower than
foreign. Thirty-six percent of the editors thought their readers were
"very interested" in foreign news, while another 57 percent said readers
were "somewhat interested." There were variations depending on the size of
the papers represented. At the largest papers, which tend to be in cities
with more diverse ethnic populations, 46 percent of editors said their
readers were "very interested," while at the smaller papers 30 percent
said so.
As for space, 58 percent of the editors who have received a larger
newshole anticipate a gradual shrinkage to pre-September 11 levels while
32 percent expect to maintain their gains. Even with the growth, 50
percent of the editors said their daily allotment for foreign news was 100
inches or less, and 73 percent said the allotments accounted for 10
percent or less of the newshole.
Totals in some categories add up to more than 100 percent due to
rounding.