Friday, July 3, 2015

the uncertain future of legacy media


The most recent trends of the digital revolutions are no comfort for the embattled legacy media.

What do we see?

A continuing decrease of advertising confirmed by the first quarter figures of the New York Times and the results of the French newspapers. Advertising is going down by 7% a year and aims directly at the bottom.

A parallel fall of paper circulation, by 2 or 3% a year which seems also an endless process.

A stabilization of the digital subscribers Which is very worrying for the NYT as they cannot expect to raise their digital subscription rates in a very competitive market.

Close to 50% of users that rely on smartphones as the hopes on the tablets have not been fulfilled by far.

The growing power of the social networks and mainly Facebook which are more and more the conduit for news. is appears that the main world newspapers will have to rely on the Facebook delivery system to keep working.

Lets hope for the best.