• by Sara Guaglione , December 7, 2015

Digital and niche reporters now outnumber newspaper reporters in the U.S. Senate Press Gallery, per Pew Research Center.

In contrast, daily newspaper staff outnumbered such journalists by more than two-to-one in the Washington press corps in the late 1990s.

The Pew report also found that there has been a sharp increase in the number of journalists working for digital news startups. The number of journalists for all digital-native outlets accredited by the Press Gallery went from 31 in 2009 to 133 in 2014 – about a fourfold increase.

This group of reporters is roughly split between those working for broad-interest publications, such as The Huffington Post or Buzzfeed, and those working for niche outlets, like Kaiser Health News or Inside Higher Ed.

In 2009, there were just two broad-interest Web site outlets; now there are 73 such journalists.

Some 60 journalists in the Washington press corps working for “niche digital-native sites” are now accredited, up from 29 in 2009.

The percentage of daily newspaper journalists accredited by the Press Gallery fell from 37% in 2009 to 32% in 2014.

Foreign press and wire service journalists have fallen as well, by 2% and 1% respectively.

When Pew looked at coverage of the federal government in eight local newspapers from across the U.S., it found that “of all the coverage about federal government appearing in these papers, the portion that comes from D.C.-based reporters accounts for less than 10%. Instead, the greatest portion of federal government coverage by far comes from wire service stories.”

The report’s findings reveal that the American public has more digital options for coverage at the national level. It also means more options for those who have access to trade publications.

However, the results also show fewer reporters on the Hill covering the federal government on behalf of local communities.