Advertising for print media continues to slide as well
We have been seeing how newspapers have been declining in readership for many years. This pretty much goes for all print media as the quickly changing world of technology has been providing easier and better options for getting your news. With Yahoo and then Google, the idea of getting your news on a computer screen has shown the coming change. And while it took longer than I would have expected, the primary source for getting news has now changed from newspapers to online. And even more interesting is that online news has even surpassed that of news on the radio.
In the chart above from Statista.com, it shows how this trend has been changing over the past 6 years as online news has been steadily increasing. For printed news, it has been seeing a steady decline since the mid-1990s. And with the growing number of tablets in the market, this trend is going to continue to see changes. And the future for printed media is facing unprecedented challenges from the ability to get your news online instantly. And you do not have to wait for it to be printed and then delivered.
While this may be a change in readership, the bigger issue is revenue for printed media. As people move away from newspapers, it has a big impact on the ability to get revenue for newspaper owners. As readership declines, the amount they can charge for advertising is going to be strained. And advertising online continues to see increases that do not look like they are going to be slowing down at all. And it is not just the advertising for businesses that is making it tough for newspapers.
All of the advertising for selling cars, garage sales and jobs is seeing big shifts as well. And it is especially true in the area of job advertising. Over the past 20 years, the web has been providing more and more options in trying to find a job. And the listings for jobs in newspapers has been seeing significant declines. Online job sites have exploded over the past 10 years and there is nothing on the horizon which is going to change that.
Printed newspapers are going to continue to see declines over the next 5 years in readership. The future for newspapers is to make sure they are providing online news. And most are. But the bigger issue is how the generate revenue from that operation. While it is far cheaper online, the costs for printing and delivering printed news continue to increase. Online, there are no printing and delivery costs as with printed news.
Some online newspapers are attempting to employ paywalls to force people to pay for the privilege of reading their news. Others employ schemes of letting you read so many free each month before they attempt to charge you. Others just let you have the news free and hope to offset that with online advertising. The last option is the best way to go. When I hit a news site that wants to charge me, I just move on to another site to get the news. And I am not alone in that.
Printed news is at a point where changes to the operations are going to have to happen to insure their survival.
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