Report: Journalism business at crossroads

WASHINGTON, March 12 (UPI) -- The U.S. journalism business is in a phase of "shrinking ambition" as nearly every sector loses audiences to other media options, a report said Monday.

Even the number of people who go online for news has stopped growing, Project for Excellence in Journalism's "State of the News Media" said. Only the ethnic press is up, it said.

"The transformation facing journalism is epochal, as momentous as the invention of television or the telegraph, perhaps on the order of the printing press itself," the report said.

The news business doesn't know what to do with the explosion of options for news delivery, from traditional media to Web sites, blogs, cell phones and personal digital assistants, the report said.

The industry needs a bold visionary like cable news magnate Ted Turner, who foresaw the potential of cable television and translated it into Cable News Network, the report said.

Project Director Tom Rosenstiel did not identify such a leader or vision but suggested the next leader could come from a place that thrives on innovation, such as California's Silicon Valley and where venture capital is available to experiment with new ideas.