2009 was a bad year for the newspaper industry. Like a werewolf shot with silver bullets of recession, it was bleeding ad revenue everywhere. American print advertising generated just $24.82 billion, level not seen since 1985. That’s a 28.6% drop from 2008, and the fourth year of accelerating decline. At the same time internet ad revenues for the American market reached record quarterly high of $6.3 billion in fourth quarter of 2009.
To make matters worse, Apple had launched the iPad. A lot of people didn’t take the threat seriously. How could this useless device harm the newspapers? But under all the silly exterior, iPad turned out to be a skilled assasin, spawning hundreds of imitations, creating a new slice of media market and bringing about the dawn of the e-magazine.
The message? Take your cross-platform journalistic training seriously. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst and never assume you will get work in print.
[...] print ad market is in decline, and the internet advertising market is growing (see my industry update). So it comes as a surprise that only a quarter of Tencent income is produced by advertising. The [...]