Picture a time when the public is increasingly its own researcher, reporter, and editor. Traditional reporters and mainstream journalism still exist, but as just one piece in the puzzle ... an increasingly smaller piece.

That's the image described in the Project for Excellence in Journalism's second "State of the News Media" annual report. And it's an image not from some distant and far-off time but from a much closer period.

"We continue to believe journalism is not becoming irrelevant," the report says. "The need to know what is true is all the greater. But discerning and communicating it is more difficult."

Among major trends in the 2005 "State of …" report:

• "the blossoming of citizen blogs";
• the emergence of "a major new news source edited entirely by computers (Google News)";
• "both triumph (exposing the Abu Gharaib prison scandal) and disgrace (Memogate) for one of the TV networks";
• "Customization, and with it fragmentation, reached new levels; Reason magazine even sent each subscriber an issue so tailored it had a satellite photo of that person's home on the cover."

From those and other important developments, the report points to a set of five implications:

1. Increasingly, the trajectory is toward models of journalism that are "faster, looser, and cheaper."
2. Reports that people are seeking out media to reinforce their own ideological concerns appear overstated: "The overwhelming majority of Americans say they prefer an independent, nonpartisan news media. So, apparently, do advertisers and investors."
3. To adapt to new pressures facing "mainstream" news media, they may have to make their journalism work more transparent, more expert. "The era of 'Trust Me' journalism has passed, and the new era of 'Show Me' journalism has begun."
4. Notwithstanding daunting demands and negative readership and viewership trends, mainstream media "are investing only cautiously in building new audiences." What investment there is, is in technology for processing information, and not in reporters to gather it.
5. With a generation of network journalists retiring or newly retired, broadcast news divisions face "the most important moment of transition in decades." Will they opt for "carefully written, taped, edited story telling -- or cut costs and make the shows more unscripted, like cable interview programs?"

Brief highlights by medium:

NEWSPAPERS – "2004 was a disappointment," with no strong recovery in ad revenues and more cutbacks in newsroom staffs ... along with circulation scandals and "little evidence of investment on the web, where the audience is growing." They're still "enormous engine[s] of profit" though.

ONLINE – "the picture for journalism seems fractured": numbers are growing dramatically, but when it comes to content, there are signs of frustration and a lack of innovation.

NETWORK TV – "The classic dilemma of a legacy industry" ... enormous fixed costs, declining revenues, and nimble competition. Major changes are imminent, but in what directions?

CABLE TV – Most Americans say they turn to cable, rather than broadcast, for breaking news. But growth is nearly at a standstill and content is "measurably thinner, more opinionated, and less densely sourced, than other forms of national news." Convenience is the strength, and on that front, the Web and the Internet promise increasingly stiff competition.

LOCAL TV – Some gains in ad revenues (boosted by political advertising) and ratings declines appear to have leveled off. But pressure to produce 40 percent-plus profits remains. "Short-term gains, in other words, may mask some long-term problems," and the public's confidence in the medium is shaky at best.

MAGAZINES – Pressures from nontraditional news titles and from opinion journals pose new challenges for the three traditional national news magazines. Time and Newsweek showed circulation declines, although U.S. News & World Report, for the first time in years, increased circulation -- albeit only 2,000 copies.

RADIO – Stable ... but with satellite radio "staking out real territory as a competitor." Shrinking radio newsrooms, and a continued drift away from local communities.

ETHNIC/ALTERNATIVE – More growth, in audience and revenue, and likely to continue, but with some challenges ahead from free consumer tabloids and big-sponsored free weeklies and online services targeting classified ad revenues.

The full report is available online at www.journalism.org.