Temple University Press Metro Dailies in the Age of Multimedia Journalism

The death of the daily newspaper in the internet age has been predicted for decades. While print newspapers are struggling from drops in advertising and circulation, their survival has been based on original reporting. Instead of a death knell, metro dailies are experiencing an identity crisis―a clash between traditional print journalism's formality and detail and digital journalism's informality and brevity.  In Metro Dailies in the Age of Multimedia Journalism, Mary Lou Nemanic provides in-depth case studies of five mid-size city newspapers to show how these publications are adapting to the transition from print-only to multiplatform content delivery―and how newsroom practices are evolving to address this change. She considers the successes when owners allow journalists to manage their newspapers―to ensure production of quality journalism under the protection of newspaper guilds―as well as how layoffs and resource cutbacks have jeopardized quality standards.Arguing for an integrated approach in which print and online reporting are considered complementary and visual journalism is emphasized across platforms, Nemanic suggests that there is a future for the endangered daily metro newspaper. Review "With the U.S. newspaper industry lost in the digital jungle, Nemanic's book documents the confusion and turmoil that numerous journalists have experienced since the recession. Addressing the most important problems facing journalism through a critical review of what has taken place in newsrooms across the country, Nemanic presents compelling case studies and sobering findings. Her timely, indispensable research on the consequences of misinformed strategy highlights the need for the newspaper industry to learn from its mistakes. Metro Dailies in the Age of Multimedia Journalism is essential reading for scholars, practitioners, and anyone who cares about the future of quality journalism."--Iris Chyi, Associate Professor at the University of Texas, Austin, and author of Trial and Error: U.S. Newspapers' Digital Struggles toward Inferiority "Metro Dailies in the Age of Multimedia Journalism makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on daily newspapers. Nemanic has a new take on the strategies deployed to respond to the rise of digital technologies and the market shifts that accompanied them. Nemanic's study is unusual in that it begins with a recognition of the persistence and viability of metro dailies and includes not only rich, in-depth interviews that shed light on newsroom dynamics but also an insightful discussion of photojournalism. This is a smart, convincing book." -- John Nerone, Professor Emeritus of Communications Research and of Media and Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and author of The Media and Public Life: A History About the Author Mary Lou Nemanic is an Associate Professor in Communications at Penn State University-Altoona. She is the co-founder/co-director of Documentary America, and the author of One Day for Democracy: Independence Day and the Americanization of Iron Range Immigrants and co-editor of Cultural Production in Virtual and Imagined Worlds.