French regional newspapers. The vanishing ads

The last Pew report stresses the crisis of the American newspapers, devastated by the steady fall of advertising. It is the same story in France. In 2012, the regional press lost 60 millions euros from 2011, i.e. 6%. The global advertising market fared much better, thanks to TV and digital supports that kept growing.

Between 2007 and 2012, the downward trend of the press contrasted with the growth of the global market so that its share of the advertising market fell from 40 to 30% as the share of TV went up by 5 points. so the net loss of the press in 5 years is 1.6 billions euros. It explains why newspapers and magazines never stopped downsizing during that period;

As far as regional dailies are concerned, their main worry is the loss of classified ads moving massively to the web. Between 2007 and 2012, classified ads income went down by 31% as compared to local advertising -17% and national advertising -16%.

What hope is there with advertising on the local press websites? Things improve but very slowly. In 2012, local ads on the web made only, 55 millions euros and 7% of the regional newspapers  advertising income. It is 20% more than the year before but not enough to make for the global loss of revenue. National ads on the web are not so dynamic. Last year, they grew by1.6%.

The global growth of income was then 9 millions euros as compared to a loss of 69 millions in print ads.

In the long term, a balance between the print and the web will be found but it will take many years and don't forget that collecting news is a costly job.