More than 15 years of experience researching news audiences and the media industry have enabled City Square Associates to take an in-depth look at how media outlets have been – and continue to be – affected by the digital world, with television news being no exception. It is the goal of this white paper to say how.

It has become cliché to say it, but it is nonetheless true, that the internet—that system whereby vast quantities of digitized stuff can be distributed and accessed simultaneously—is the most disruptive technology since the printing press. Just as Gutenberg’s sixteenth century invention took the Bible out of the exclusive possession of a monastic elite and put it into the hands of common folk who could interpret the mysterious texts in the bright light of their own experience and wisdom, the internet has ripped away journalism from the high priests of old media—newspaper editors and network news anchors—and made it a far more democratic affair.

We explore this disruption and many of the themes and ideas surrounding it in this free white paper.