Print Media RIP?

!

Print media RIP?A Cow report on the future of

print, what it means for brands

Dirk Singer, Twitter - @dirkthecow

Tuesday 24 March 2009

“There will be no media

consumption left in 10 years

that is not delivered over an

IP network. There will be no

newspapers, no magazines

that are delivered in paper

form. Everything gets

delivered in an electronic

form.“ Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer


!

“All the endless obituaries I've

read about the death of

newspapers struck me as

rather ludicrous - or, at the

least, extremely premature.

Until those of us who came of

age before the Internet all die

off, there will be a market for

print versions of newspapers.”Political blogger, online publisher -

Arianna Huffington


In summary we think:

• We agree with Arianna Huffington: Talking about the death of newspapers is highly premature

• But the fact remains that the newspaper landscape is shifting beyond recognition, fueled by a drop in ad revenues and online making print less relevant / essential

• Print media in the future will be leaner in circulations, more specialised as to who each title appeals to

• TV is holding its own and has managed to compliment the web

• The future of media: Interactive media that’s there to engage, over static media that’s there to inform


Wading through the 100s of statistics

A look at some trends


Newspapers are more popular than ever...


• US newspaper websites up +12% (Nielsen) even as Time Magazine produces a list of the top ten endangered US city papers

• The Guardian is on the way to becoming the first 30 million user newspaper - with 19 of those 11 million users being non UK...it’s print circulation barely touches 350k

• The New York Times, The Guardian - made their entire archive open to developers

...because of the Internet


The reach of UK nationals (ABCe, January 2009 - in thousands)

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

Guardian Telegraph Mail Sun Times Independent Mirror

Print Web


Despite this - the industry is in trouble

“Publishers could make the

product insanely cheap

(remember the penny press),

and the advertising would

cover the expenses, plus

generate fantastic profits.

“However, this is clearly over. It’s

done. It worked for a long time,

but now, like trans-Atlantic

leisure travel in big passenger

ships, it will never work again.” (Online journalism lecturer, Mindy McAdams)


Consider that

The Internet might not necessarily save

newspapers - The New York Times would only fund a fifth of its news budget via its Web ads

According to Enders Analysis, UK

newspaper revenues are projected to drop by 21%, compared to

a 10% drop for TV

In 2000 classifieds accounted for 40% of US newsaper profits. Now thanks to services like Craigslist and Gumtree

it accounts for 23%


The morning paper just isn’t as much of an ‘essential’ anymore

“The thing that worries me most

at the moment about the

condition of journalism is,

frankly, who’s going to pay for the

journalists and the journalism in

10 years’ time? My kids wouldn’t

dream of buying a newspaper —

and we are a newspaper

household.”

BBC Presenter and former newspaper editor, Andrew Marr


“High Trust” (UK) - Friends (45%), Online

news (40%), TV (35%), Newspapers (23%)

Source - TNS

“High Trust” (world) - Friends (41%), TV (40%),

Online news (39%), Newspapers (38%)


• According to one report, no UK regional paper has over 127 Google reader subscribers (The Guardian has 118,000)

• According to Northwestern Uni in the US, 62% of consumers have never visited their local paper website

• According to Pew Research in the US, only 33% say they’d really miss their local paper if it went

• Enders Analysis says regional papers in the UK will see a 48% ad drop 2007-2012 (FT 12/3/09)

Regional papers have particular difficulties


The word of mouth world changes everything


"Imagine that you walked into a 400-year old market where the clerks hand you and every other customer an identical bag containing

exactly the same mix of some 50 items and they tell you it contains what

the supermarket's manager thought you and

everyone else should or would like to eat.

“Despite its venerable history, would you shop at this market

again?" (Online journalism pundit Vin

Crosbie)


Twitter now has more views than UK

newspapers online (Hitwise)

Facebook is now a bigger source of

traffic for some sites than Google

(AdAge)


What’s the future?"Not all readers demand such quality,

but the educated, opinion-leading,

news-junkie core of the audience

always will. They will insist on it as a

defense against "persuasive

communication," the euphemism for

advertising, public relations and spin

that exploits the confusion of

information overload.

“Readers need and want to be

equipped with truth-based defenses.”Philip Meyer, author of The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving

Journalism in the Information Age


People still want quality reporting

• Though trust in online news is high, that doesn’t include blogs

• In the UK 6% ‘highly trust’ blogs, 10% worldwide (TNS)

• Delivery mechanisms, interactivity, personalisation is different - the need for quality isn’t

• Rather than being all things to all people, publications that appeal to a more specialised audience have a better chance of survival

• For example, a Deloitte study showed that 75% of UK consumers enjoy reading magazines, despite the fact that they could find that info online


A hybrid future?

“Those papers that wake up in time will become a

journalistic hybrid combining the best aspects

of traditional print newspapers with the best of what the Web brings to

the table.”(Arianna Huffington)


The road ahead for brandsTuesday 24 March 2009

Online exposure isn’t second best Online news outperforms print on reach AND credibility. Also, think about all the times you forwarded on an online article vs kept and handed on a print article.


• “TV usage is at an all-time high, and yet there's a lot more people using the Internet. Part of the answer is that it's happening simultaneously" (Nielsen)

• TV is successfully bleeding into the Web - 70% of Brits watch TV and surf the Internet at the same time (Blinxx)

• Broadcasters and programme makers realise - The Internet is a brand extension, it doesn’t canabilise viewers

• We may not want our news in print. But we still want our telly on the box

TV is holding its own


Make online an integrated part of your media campaign, not something handled in isolation


Look at interactive over static media


What are you doing to produce and disseminate content that people want to hear and talk about?

Finally - If every person can now be a media publisher online, so can every brand


Thank you for your time!Any questions - [email protected]


With thanks for the images (taken from Flickr via a creative commons / attribution / commercial license)★JasonMchuff★DRB62★KYZ★Ohglory★Jojakeman★Cliff1066★Joshuafavis★Mattymatt★Canpac★norrmairiz★irargerich★Johnlegear★Tonythemisfit★ehnmark★liberalmind★avlxyz★Svadilfari★John2205★Michaelheileman★Vidiot★Philromans

Further details on some of the research:★Google reader subscribers and regional newspapers, from Currybet.net - see http://bit.ly/pWBOM

★We’ve published a series of articles on this subject on our blog - http://www.thisisherd.com

★A lot of the stats from the presentation have additionally been taken from TNS ‘Digital World / Digital Life’, download from http://bit.ly/M3wGp


http://bit.ly/pWBOM

http://bit.ly/pWBOM

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Print Media RIP?