Saw a story in last week’s PRWeek that mentioned the “State of the Media Report” by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. The project is an institute affiliated with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and funded by the Pew Charitable Trust.

Didn’t know what to expect, but it seems well-researched and exhaustive. It’s a long read, lots about newspapers; national, cable, and local TV; radio; magazines and the web. Here’s one quote regarding blogging:

“With only about a quarter of the population having ever read one, blogs remain a relatively unfamiliar platform for much of the public. In February 2005, only 26% of Internet users said they were “very familiar” or “somewhat familiar” with blogs, according to a Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll.

And who makes up this minority of Americans who consume blogs? Research suggests they are more likely to be younger and male. And ironically, the most fervid blog readers are journalists — the group perhaps that feels most threatened by them.^“

Here’s an interesting graph showing where Internet users go online for news:

Well Yahoo repackages news from other sources, such as the news wires; AOL and CNN are owed by Time Warner; and MSNBC is owned by NBC (a part of GE) and Microsoft. Most everyone gets there news from the mainstream media.

Now look at this chart on trust:

Overall, blogs don’t fare too well. Yes, there are some very credible blogs in certain sectors: tech comes to mind. But to the average American, blogs aren’t that believable. Again it’s the mainstream media that is most trustworthy — contrary to many claims otherwise.

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