Newspaper: Online vs Print
There have been a few posts lately around the blogosphere about newspaper advertising and what's happening to the medium as a viable entity for advertising. All this talk about newspapers going the way of the dinosaur had got me wondering what the actual numbers looked like.
Luckily enough, I stumbed across this gem at The New York Times website this morning. A brief summary tells us that newspaper advertising spending increased only 0.3% in the first three months of 2006 (to a mere $10.5 billion) over the corresponding period last year. Compare this to online newspaper spending: over the same time period, spending on online advertising surged by over 35% to $613 million.
Looking at the gross numbers in terms of revenue, it's clear that the vast majority of dollars spent go towards the rags (nearly 20 times the amount). But this recent increase in online advertising is the eighth consecutive quarter of growth for online, says the Newspaper Association of America.
It makes it safe to assume then, that this decrease in revenue from hard copy advertising is a result of declining circulation: last month, the Audit Bureau of Circulations released figures showing that in the six-month period that ended in March, daily circulation of American newspapers dropped 2.5 percent, to 45.5 million, over the same period a year ago.
Luckily enough, I stumbed across this gem at The New York Times website this morning. A brief summary tells us that newspaper advertising spending increased only 0.3% in the first three months of 2006 (to a mere $10.5 billion) over the corresponding period last year. Compare this to online newspaper spending: over the same time period, spending on online advertising surged by over 35% to $613 million.
Looking at the gross numbers in terms of revenue, it's clear that the vast majority of dollars spent go towards the rags (nearly 20 times the amount). But this recent increase in online advertising is the eighth consecutive quarter of growth for online, says the Newspaper Association of America.
It makes it safe to assume then, that this decrease in revenue from hard copy advertising is a result of declining circulation: last month, the Audit Bureau of Circulations released figures showing that in the six-month period that ended in March, daily circulation of American newspapers dropped 2.5 percent, to 45.5 million, over the same period a year ago.
Now that the scales are tipping, I predict that those numbers will only continue to accelerate, until newspaper's inevitable end.
Man, I sound negative. But in my lifetime I expect online to eclipse print in value and audience.
Posted by
Jordan |
Wed Jun 07, 08:22:00 PM PDT
The demographics tell the story. The vast majority of print newspaper consumers are older, 50's and up. Young people don't read the papers anymore (with the exception of the Sunday classified ads, and even those are online now.)
I expect print newspapers will become obsolete at some point, but I expect that other print mediums will remain intact, such as magazines. I mean, sometimes you don't have access to a computer, and you need your Brangelina fix.
I think most newspapers are equipped to handle this obsolescence. Most major papers have a sturdy online presence already, and with new subscription models being tried out, they should make the transition quite nicely.
Posted by
J.D. |
Thu Jun 08, 12:49:00 AM PDT