Newsroom decision makers are starting to earn their pay again – no longer can they just follow election tales and pretty much let it go at that. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism report for the week of 11/17/08-11/23/08, the traditional scattershot pattern for news coverage is being to take hold again.
There was a slight election hangover, nonetheless – presidential and congressional election results still commanded 2% each of the overall newshole, thanks to some very late returns (and of course, as we write this they’re still not done in Minnesota and Georgia).
And various economic stories are hot – but hey, there was even room for actual pirates in this week’s chart, tied for #4 with the California wildfire disaster.
| Story | Overall | Newspaper | Online | Net.TV | CATV | Radio |
| New Obama administration | 23% | 12% | 24% | 20% | 39% | 20% |
| Financial crisis/bailout | 17% | 28% | 14% | 18% | 10% | 13% |
| US auto industry | 15% | 13% | 13% | 18% | 21% | 16% |
| Pirates from Somalia | 3% | x | 6% | 4% | 1% | 3% |
| SoCal wildfires | 3% | 2% | 3% | 6% | 1% | 3% |
| New 111th Congress | 3% | 2% | x | 2% | 3% | 5% |
| Congressional election results | 2% | x | 2% | x | 5% | 5% |
| Events in Iraq | 2% | 6% | x | 1% | x | x |
| Presidential election results | 2% | x | x | x | 3% | 4% |
| Health care | 1% | 5% | x | x | x | x |
| War on terror | x | 3% | x | x | x | x |
| Same sex marriage debate | x | 2% | 2% | x | x | 1% |
| Israeli/Lebanon conflict | x | 1% | x | x | x | x |
| Failed Yahoo/Microsoft merger | x | x | 3% | x | x | x |
| AG Mukasey’s health | x | x | 2% | x | x | x |
| Congo civil war | x | x | 2% | x | x | x |
| Global warming | x | x | x | 1% | x | x |
| Cyberspace issues | x | x | x | 1% | x | x |
| Afghanistan | x | x | x | 1% | x | x |
| Fairness Doctrine | x | x | x | x | 1% | x |
| Domestic terrorism | x | x | x | x | 1% | x |
| Congressional corruption | x | x | x | x | x | 3% |
Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism
