FT.com / Companies / Media & internet – Online ads to overtake US newspapers
No traditional media sector is more challenged by online than print newspapers. Between craigslist for classifieds, blogs for oped, and the speed of the web for breaking news, newspapers have to fundamentally reinvent themselves to survive. Ironically, no traditional media sector is more conducive to adaptation to the web. Radio, broadcast TV, magazines, and even cable don’t port as seamlessly to the web as the already daily, text and image oriented content of newspapers. The challenge for the newspaper business is less about product, and more about operations. They need to direct their existing staffs to stop spending time creating content optimized for print, and start start creating content for the web. Consumers still want what newspaper have to offer, they just want more choices in how they access it. Killing trees and dirty hands seem unnecessary in a world of screens and mobile devices.
In the 2007 study, published on Tuesday, VSS forecasts that online advertising will grow by more than 21 per cent per year to reach $62bn in 2011, making it bigger than newspaper advertising, which is expected to total $60bn in 2011.
Broadcast television and cable and satellite television combined will continue to take the biggest share of advertising dollars, and are forecast to reach $86bn in 2011. “The path of online advertising and newspaper advertising is a continuation of what we’ve been observing for many years, but it is finally getting to the point where the lines will cross,” said James Rutherfurd, managing director at VSS.
