Specialty media on the rise in Washington, study says

Shifts in the way news is reported in Washington mean that average citizens find information about the government harder to come by, while an "elite" specialty audience has access to more information than ever, a study to be released today has found. The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism plans to report that -- while mainstream media outlets continue to diminish because of declining advertising -- specialty publications serving lobbyists and insiders are growing in size and influence. "In short, those influencing policy have access to more information than ever, while those affected by those policies -- but not organized to shape them -- are likely to be less informed," said the report, the result of a three-month review. The "balance of information" has tilted away from average readers with the decline in general-interest news outlets. In 1985, reporters representing 564 outlets had credentials to cover Congress, while just 160 outlets had credentialed reporters as of 2007. The number has declined since then.