The advertising figures released in France and in the US show very clearly the new trends in the economy of the media.
According to IREP, 2010 was a good year for the French media. Television income increased by 11%. Internet display rose by 12%. However, things are not so good for the press whose advertising income decreased by 1.6. The magazines fared quite well (+4.7) but the national dailies made a modest increase of 2.3 and the regional newspapers lost 2.2. If you add up the bad results of the free sheets and the local weeklies, you realize that the print industry is lagging behind television and Internet and this trend continues in 2011.
In the States, the same process is at work. Television and specially, local television had a very good year with an increase of about 10%. the same with Internet which is soon to be the second advertising media in the country. Figures are very bad for the daily newspapers (-8.2) in spite of a raise of 10% for the press websites. According to the specialists, 2010 was the worst year for the dailies in 25 years.
My opinion is that the daily press can survive only if it plays well with the Web and the print. There is still a strong need for a good daily information.
A species in danger is the newsmagazine. The fall of Newsweek in the US, delivers a strong signal. It is practically impossible to provide interesting or exciting news on a weekly basis. If you pick up the right websites, you get what you need at any moment. Speaking of France, I don't believe that four newsmagazines can live on a narrowing market.
All that means that new upheavals are to be foreseen in the near future.
