The Project on Excellence in Journalism's third-annual state of the U.S. news industry report finds more outlets but a shrunken menu of stories. An updating survey of news and commentary on the PEJ report, released Monday, March 13:

THE REPORT: http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2006/
http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2006/printingthereport.asp

LA Times: More outlets, fewer stories
A "new paradox of journalism" has emerged in which the number of news
outlets continues to grow, yet the number of stories covered and the depth
of many reports is decreasing, according to an annual review of the news
business being released today by a watchdog group.
(LINK: Los Angeles Times via TruthOut)

NPR AUDIO: Media Report Is, Well, Mixed
NPR's Talk of the Nation on MARCH 13 featured correspondent David Folkenflik; PEJ Director tom Rosenstiel; UC-Berkley journalism school dean Orville Schell and Washington Post Young Journalists program director Althelia Knight talk about both the PEJ report. 
(LINK TO: Streaming audio)

POYNTER: Pack journalism and control
The Poynter Institute's Rick Edmonds, a co-author of the report's section on newspapers, says the study shows what "amounts to a kind of pack journalism in whih the herders, especially on national news, are too often able to control what the public knows."
(LINK TO: Poynter website)

Journalists, too, troubled by press perils
"Americans continue to be troubled about the state of the press," writes The Washington Times' Jennifer Harper in her story about the PEJ report. She adds: "But journalists themselves are troubled as well . . . . "
(LINK TO: Washington Times story, 03-14-06)

SELECTED OTHER LINKS:

Richard Larsen at the Venture County Star, opinion piece: "Core Values Should Not be Changed":
http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/opinion_columnists/article/0,1375,VCS_223_4538967,00.html

Editor & Publisher Online's staff-written report: "Annual State-of-Media Report: 2005 'Three Times Worse' Than 2004":
http://editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002157352&imw=Y

Kari Chisholm at Mandate Media's PoliticsandTechnology blog, comments on the online portions of LAST YEAR'S report:
http://www.politicsandtechnology.com/2005/03/state_of_the_ne.html

Excerpting of the report's highlights by the Public Relations Society of America:
http://www.philly.prsa.org/viewNews.cfm?pNewsID=155