The Economist compared the Times of London of a hundred years ago to today's. On a typical day in 1898, the Times of London carried dozens of columns of foreign news, domestic news, useful knowledge, and book reviews in its first pages. Today, the Times carries an assortment of domestic news and a few foreign reports focusing on celebrities and heads of state. It appears to The Economist that newspapers that used to be full of politics and economics are now thick with celebrities and sports. Morerover, readers and viewers have a much larger selection of news sources than existed five years ago.
Television viewers have dozens of news sources available via cable, satellites, and broadcast.
Internet users can have dozens more, depending on how much time, effort, and subscriber fees they are willing to spend. And dozens of new specialty news magazines are finding niche audiences. The Economist concludes that in the competition for readers and viewers, news sources that concentrate on people, human interest, and sports are winning audience, while traditional news sources that concentrate on politics and world events are losing audience. While politics and world events may be dull, they are ever-changing. On the other hand, news organizations chasing celebrities are often forced to pour resources into the same old story.