From TechCrunch:
Drilling down into the fourth quarter numbers, total advertising dollars shrank 19.74 percent, making it the tenth straight quarter in which revenues have declined, and the sixth straight quarter in which the rate of decline has been accelerating
3Q07: -7.4%
4Q07: -10.3%
1Q08: -12.85%
2Q08: -15.11% 3
3Q08: -18.11%
4Q08: -19.74%The rate of decline in online revenues also seems to be accelerating. .Online revenues were $778 million, which was 8 percent lower than the year before. The year-over-year decline was also greater than the 3 percent decline in the third quarter and the 2.4 percent decline in the second quarter (which was the first quarter when online ad revenues for the newspaper industry went down).
The table below shows both online and total (print and online) advertising revenues for the newspaper industry for each quarter of last year. The “total” column below includes both online and print revenues
Year Quarter
Online % Change
Total % Change 2008 1 $804.05 7.20% $9,229.53 -12.85% 2 $776.58 -2.40% $9,601.64 -15.11% 3 $749.84 -3.00% $8,942.43 -18.11% 4 $778.27 -8.10% $10,074.65 -19.74%
Goodbye newspapers…?
In Italy the first signals of an incoming crisis can be traced in the recent problems which invested “Il Manifesto” and “La Repubblica” (La crisi dell’editoria che viene da lontano).
Is the crisis a consequence of economic ever worsening situation or can just be attributed to the new ways of circulating news offered by internet?
Thanks to the diffusion of more and more fast connections and the wide spread of internet all web users can access instantly every kind of news and informations. And moreover this can be done for free, at least from the user’s point of view. The real market is behind the scenes: the huge and intricated world of advertising which is migrating from paper press to its web equivalent. The reader can get informations without paying anything and, at least apparently, the choice and availability of news is much greater. Moreover internet offers an interactive approach not available through standard newspaper.
The advantages seem many….which are the drawbacks?
One possible drawback could be found in the web organization itself maybe, intrinsic in all internet facilities. While reading an article the reader finds (almost stubs its toe on) a great amount of links one after the other. This is the web with its hypertext structure. It offers new hints and open one’s own point of view but can also divert from a complete, relaxing and focused reading.
The new freedom offered by the web always depends on our own intelligent usage. For the standard reader the kind of fruition offered by the web is more difficult than the one offered earlier on the traditional papers. Maybe…
The interactiveness may indicate more freedom of expression but also more ways to be deceived.
Who is now the warrantor of the news?
The users can’t make directly the questions to all degrees of people at all levels. This is the task of professional journalists and reporters and this is the reason why I hope a way of cohabitation of classical and new media will be reached.
http://italianopinionist.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/goodbye-newspaper/