In a lengthy report, the Project for Excellence in Journalism profiles the shift that's taking place in newspaper newsrooms (or, if you prefer, multimedia information centers) across the country:
"The newsroom staff producing the paper is also smaller, younger, more tech-savvy, and more oriented to serving the demands of both print and the web. The staff also is under greater pressure, has less institutional memory, less knowledge of the community, of how to gather news and the history of individual beats. There are fewer editors to catch mistakes.
"Despite an image of decline, more people today in more places read the content produced in the newsrooms of American daily newspapers than at any time in years. But revenues are tumbling. The editors expect the financial picture only to worsen, and they have little confidence that they know what their papers will look like in five years. "
The report is based on in-person interviews at 15 daily newspapers and a survey of 259 senior news executives across the country.