Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Media Advertising Up in 2010--Except for Newspapers

More bad news for local newspapers like the Oregonian.

Kantar Media reports that the first nine months of 2010 showed a growth in media advertising in all sectors except newspapers.

Though national newspapers ("primarily from gains at the Wall Street Journal") showed a 6.8% increase in advertising and Spanish language newspapers a 2% increase, local newspapers pulled the average down with its -4.4% decrease.

This is the 20th consecutive quarter in which spending on local newspaper advertising has declined.

4 comments:

OregonGuy said...

Content matters. I don't care to read teh narrative. I do find information that's usable on the interwebs. And, since I need interwebs connectivity for the business, you could say I'm cheating the taxman and getting that access free. (I need to write a note to my accountant.)
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T. D. said...

Hey OG, Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your family.

Internet info is growing to be the most important news source. Internet advertising is up 7%.

You're right content does matter. That's probably why the Wall Street Journal is doing reasonably well even though most other newspapers aren't.

Easy internet access to news articles is clearly a huge driver of falling readership of the print edition. Further, as the difficulty of separating fact from spin (inadvertent or not) increases, readership lessens and so does advertising.

Did you read the Oregonian's Scott Learn's partial sentence "mea culpa" today for passing along grossly inaccurate information on a supposed "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" of floating plastic and debris the size of Texas?

It was only a part of a sentence. It didn't link to his previous erroneous post. But, at least it was an admission of error. However it did have more the flavor of an obligatory "oops" than real embarrassment at passing along whopper misinformation.

Until journalists get serious about factual truth (which is the first step toward credibility), any idea of fair reporting is a pipe dream.

Accurate information fairly presented is worth reading and paying for.

OregonGuy said...

I haven't purchased a copy of The Oregonian since October 4th, 2004.

It used to be a fine newspaper, and had one of the best business writers in the country. That ended. I just don't see how it makes sense to purchase a rag that simply avoids the realities of how markets work.
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T. D. said...

In a way I feel sorry for the Oregonian. First, it publishes in a far Left metro area. Second, almost all the "big guns" in the media have standards just as low, if not lower, than the Oregonian's.

Journalistic and ethical standards have fallen so dramatically that even three-fourths of the non-professional public see the problem.