Inside news companies, the most immediate concern is how much revenue lost in recession the industry will regain as the economy improves. Whatever the answers, the future of news ultimately rests on more long-term concerns: What are the prospects for alternative journalism organizations that are forming around the country? Will traditional media adapt and innovate amid continuing pressures to thin their ranks?

The biggest question facing online journalism today is how to pay for it. With revenue declining both online and in legacy platforms, news organizations say they are intensifying the search for new models. What kind of new advertising options are out there? How will users respond? And would consumers in the marketplace accept pay walls?

Poynter Institute ethicist Kelly McBride was visiting former colleagues at the Spokane Spokesman-Review last summer, when the conversation slid into the how-bad-is-it? mode. It has gotten so bad, one journalist said, that the independent contractors who deliver the paper are complaining that the Monday edition doesn’t have enough throw-weight to get all the way up the porch.

The state of online news heading into 2010 may best be described as a moving target. Digital delivery is now well established as a part of most Americans daily news consumption. Six in ten Americans get some news online in a typical day—and most of these also get news from other media platforms as well.

Heading into 2009, there were some small signs of promise in network news. Viewership of the evening newscasts actually rose in the November, December and January following the 2008 presidential election. It dipped in February and March 2009, but was up again in April.