Sunday, June 08, 2008

Newsprint Futures?

World Digital Media Trends 2nd report, which was compiled by 71 research groups was released last week at a meeting of the World Association of Newspapers. It reported that:

- the digital platforms of newspapers are growing at a double-digit rate worldwide
- mobile advertising revenues are expected to increase to about $150 billion worldwide.
- the number of wireless device subscriptions is expected to increase to 3.4 billion
- the mobile telephone customer base has increased from 945 million in 2001 to 2.6 billion in 2006.

Has the printed tabloid, which is some 100 years old, had its day?
Will newsparint now loose out and Internet which in term will become the primary news and information source over the next few years? Will newspapers migrate their ad funded business models to the Internet markets or will the dominant search engines take the advertising revenues?

Newspapers and journalism work today in the printed form but as the market shifts will the relationship continue or will it change? We all assume that life cycles remain with the same players merely adapting to the change but that is not always the case. The next decade will be an interesting one to watch in newsprint both it terms of the delivery of the news to the market, the relationships between the journalists, editors and owners, where the advertising spend goes and the business models that develop.

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