ARLINGTON, Va.—The Axios news site has pulled together an impressive amount of data about how consumers interacted with news content in 2021 and the results highlight major problems in the news business as it goes into 2022. Key trends include: social media interactions with news stories fell by 65% in 2021; primetime cable news viewers dropped by 36% at Fox News, CNN and MSNBC; news media app downloads slumped by 33% and visitors to news sites fell by 8% compared to 2020. 

“Given the ongoing decline in interest in news about COVID-19 and politics, it doesn't look like 2022 will be much better,” Axios reporters concluded. 

The analysis of data from NewsWhip, Apptopia, SimilarWeb and Nielsen by Axios also found that with “fewer singular storylines capturing America's collective attention, news consumption was more scattered and diverted to sports.”

An Associated Press report cited by Axios confirmed those conclusions. The AP reported that in “2021, weekday prime-time viewership dropped 38% at CNN, 34% at Fox News Channel and 25% at MSNBC,” and that “the decline was less steep but still significant at broadcast television evening newscasts” with ABC’s `World News Tonight’ and the `CBS Evening News’ down 12% and NBC’s “Nightly News,” down 14% the AP said citing Nielsen data. 

Axios also noted that app downloads for the top 12 mainstream publishers dropped 33%, according to data from Apptopi, with the biggest declines in the second half of the year. 

The AP reported that both the New York Times and the Washington Post saw significant declines, with “the number of unique visitors to the Post’s site was down 44% in November [2021] compared to November 2020, and down 34% at the Times,” according to Comscore data cited by AP.

In addition Axios reported that “website visits for the top-performing news websites in the U.S. tracked by Similarweb in the first 11 months of 2021 dropped 8%” but “traffic to hyper-partisan and political publishers took a severe hit in 2021, while mainstream news publishers did better.”

NEW YORK—AP Global Media Services, the production arm of The Associated Press, has announced that it will offer multiple on-air reporting solutions for broadcasters and publishers in several languages at the upcoming Tokyo Summer Games.

AP Global Media Services (GMS) will be offering custom live shots and exclusive stand-up positions during the games to help outlets deliver live reporting capabilities in Tokyo.

It will also be making experienced broadcast journalists available for custom live reports and edited packages in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Luxembourgish. AP Sports reporters covering the games are also available for live interviews in English.

Exclusive stand-up positions in Tokyo include the new National Stadium and Zojoji Temple and Tokyo Tower. These locations do not require IOC accreditation to access and are included in the official Activity Plan for media covering the Games.

“Many news organizations are unable to send correspondents to Tokyo because of pandemic-related restrictions, but that doesn’t mean they can’t offer live coverage of the Summer Games to their audiences,” said Ciaran McQuillan, head of GMS special events for Asia. “GMS can help bring their viewers to the Games through bespoke live reports, as well as supply the technology and facilities needed by outlets who may have reporters in the city but are unable to send full crews.”

In addition to the services offering by its production arm, the AP will be offering around-the-clock news coverage of 33 sports and 50 disciplines during the games.

SAN DIEGO—Sony Electronics and the Associated Press are teaming up, with the two sides announcing that Sony will now serve as the exclusive imaging products and support provider for AP News photographers and video journalists globally.

Sony products that will be provided to the AP’s roster of journalists include the full-frame mirrorless Alpha cameras, 4K XDCAM video cameras and an assortment of Sony’s 57 E-mount lenses, including G Master models.

This will mark the first time that AP’s video journalists and photographers will be equipped with the same brand of cameras, according to the official announcement. This is meant to enable collaboration among the news agency’s journalists.

“Sony’s history of innovation aligns well with the AP’s, and with our vision for the future of video journalism,” said Derl McCrudden, AP deputy managing editor for visual and digital journalism. “AP is committed to providing the best imagery to our member news organizations and customers across the globe. Adopting Sony’s cutting-edge equipment and technology allows us to do that, by enabling our photographers and video journalists to be faster and more flexible, ultimately creating better visual journalism.”

In addition to the products, Sony and AP plan to collaborate on improving workflow and efficiency of field operations, including testing 5G capabilities.

For more information, visit www.sony.com. 

NEW YORK—Following the expansion of the number of live channels available to digital publishers back in February, the Associated Press has announced an expansion of its live video content offering for broadcasters. In addition to AP Direct, which launched in 2003, broadcasters can now also access three additional live content streams from AP Video Hub for scheduled live global and regional events as well as breaking news.

(Photo Credit: The Associated Press)

This move, according to AP, is to fill address audiences desire for live video coverage on multiple platforms, as well as coverage of events beyond breaking news. This can include political, cultural and religious events; red carpet coverage; product launches; technology shows; sports news; and more. AP is also investing in additional live newsgathering capacity.

“We’ve already increased our AP Direct output by nearly 50 percent in the last two years,” said Derl McCrudden, head of international video news for AP. “However, while we will be increasing the volume further still, this is about offering broadcasters a much broader choice and the ability to offer live content genres that go much wider than simply news.”

These changes are part of a larger initiative by AP, which will institute ongoing changes to its video offering; the increase of live content will remain a focus for 2015. As part of its effort, AP plans to switch off its Global Video Wire at the end of March 2016 and moving all customers to digital delivery.