The Need: Nation’s Press in Peril

• Newspapers are shrinking: Many newspapers seem unable to escape a cycle of falling advertising revenue, staff cutbacks and circulation loss.
• Journalists are disappearing: Northern California newspapers have collectively downsized by more than 800 journalists since 2000.
• Oversight is diminishing: With fewer reporter scrambling to cover larger beats, newspapers are bound  to compromise their watch-dog role and miss important stories.
• Access is not universal: According to San Francisco’s 2007 City Survey, only 50 percent of low-income households reported having home Internet access. While 87 percent of white respondents access the Internet from home, that figure is only 60 percent for Latinos, 65 for African Americans and 76 percent for Asians.