There’s a lot of irony in the latest report on World Press Trends from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). Sure, there’s the expected:
- newspaper advertising’s 25% global decline over the past five years, with North America driving nearly three quarters of that drop
- digital news’ growth and struggle to monetize
- television continued dominance, with 40% of the world’s advertising
- search’s dominance of internet ad revenue at 58%
But some of their findings were not so expected. Like how newspapers may be down and yet they’re still pretty pervasive. Globally, they amount to a 200 billion dollar annual industry and domestically, with ad revenues at $96 Billion in 2011, they represent 20% of the overall ad market. The biggest hit on newspapers has been the drop in classified revenues, which has dropped 65% in five years.
The real lesson here is that newspapers remain a viable media platform, particularly for an older, more educated audience. And unlike search, they can actually help you build a brand.
Besides, crosswords stink on an iPad.
Happy Friday!