Although the Internet has spawned a vast increase in news sources, almost all news is still gathered by traditional media, suggests a study by the Pew Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. The study, which tracked how news was gathered and circulated through more than 53 news outlets during a week last year in Baltimore, discovered 95 per cent of new information was published by traditional media – particularly general newspapers, specialty newspapers and local television – and their websites. Across all outlets, however, more than 80 per cent of “news” was previously published information. Meanwhile, the number of stories published by the city daily declined 32 per cent from 1999 and more than 60 per cent of information found in news stories was initiated by government officials, particularly police.