U.S. news executives see opportunities in technology, but are unsure of how to make revenue in the future, a new Pew Research Centre's Project for Excellence in Journalism survey has found. They are also "hesitant" about the multitude of alternate funding ideas being explored, such as outside funding.

"Our mantra this year is experiment and fail quickly," one newspaper news executive said, according to the survey, the results of which are out today. "Don't be afraid of change and don't stick with something too long if it doesn't work."

Newsrooms today are better than ever, even though most have been cut and revenue is down, with younger staff guiding tech trends and more experimentation happening than ever before. However, executives are worried about the future, with less than half of those surveyed saying they are confident their operations will survive another 10 years without significant new sources of revenue. Meanwhile, almost a third said they believe their operations are at risk in five years or less. "And many blame the problems not on the inevitable effect of technology but on their industry's missed opportunities," the findings stated.

New outside funding ideas, such as government funding, are viewed as generally bad ideas.

"They are being used to 'save' old models of journalism that are no longer economically viable and will die out over time no matter what," a broadcast executive said, according to the survey.

The survey was conducted from December 2009 to January 2010, and 353 news executives responded.

For more on the survey's findings, visit the News Leaders and the Future survey Web site.