Print media RIP? Dirk Singer, Twitter - @dirkthecow
!
A Cow report on the future of
print, what it means for brands
Tuesday 24 March 2009

“There will be no media
consumption left in 10 years
that is not delivered over an
IP network. There will be no
newspapers, no magazines
that are delivered in paper
form. Everything gets
delivered in an electronic
form.“
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
Tuesday 24 March 2009

“All the endless obituaries I've
read about the death of
newspapers struck me as
rather ludicrous - or, at the
least, extremely premature.
Until those of us who came of
age before the Internet all die
off, there will be a market for !
print versions of newspapers.”
Political blogger, online publisher -
Arianna Huffington
Tuesday 24 March 2009

In summary we think:
• We agree with Arianna • Print media in the future will be
Huffington: Talking about the leaner in circulations, more
death of newspapers is highly specialised as to who each title
premature appeals to
• But the fact remains that the • TV is holding its own and has
newspaper landscape is shifting managed to compliment the web
beyond recognition, fueled by a
drop in ad revenues and online
• The future of media: Interactive
making print less relevant /
media that’s there to engage,
essential
over static media that’s there to
inform
Tuesday 24 March 2009

Wading through the A look at some trends
100s of statistics
Tuesday 24 March 2009

Newspapers are more popular than ever...
Tuesday 24 March 2009

...because of the
Internet
• US newspaper websites up
+12% (Nielsen) even as Time
Magazine produces a list of
the top ten endangered US
city papers
• The Guardian is on the way to
becoming the first 30 million
user newspaper - with 19 of
those 11 million users being
non UK...it’s print circulation
barely touches 350k
• The New York Times, The
Guardian - made their entire
archive open to developers
Tuesday 24 March 2009

The reach of UK nationals
(ABCe, January 2009 - in thousands)
40,000
Print Web
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
Guardian Telegraph Mail Sun Times Independent Mirror
Tuesday 24 March 2009

Despite this - the
industry is in trouble
“Publishers could make the
product insanely cheap
(remember the penny press),
and the advertising would
cover the expenses, plus
generate fantastic profits.
“However, this is clearly over. It’s
done. It worked for a long time,
but now, like trans-Atlantic
leisure travel in big passenger
ships, it will never work again.”
(Online journalism lecturer, Mindy McAdams)
Tuesday 24 March 2009

The Internet might not According to Enders In 2000 classifieds
necessarily save Analysis, UK accounted for 40% of US
newspapers - The New newspaper revenues newsaper profits. Now
York Times would only are projected to drop thanks to services like
fund a fifth of its news by 21%, compared to Craigslist and Gumtree
budget via its Web ads a 10% drop for TV it accounts for 23%
Consider that
Tuesday 24 March 2009

“The thing that worries me most
at the moment about the
condition of journalism is,
frankly, who’s going to pay for the
journalists and the journalism in
10 years’ time? My kids wouldn’t
dream of buying a newspaper —
and we are a newspaper
household.”
BBC Presenter and former
newspaper editor, Andrew Marr
The morning paper just isn’t as much of an ‘essential’ anymore
Tuesday 24 March 2009

“High Trust” (world) -
“High Trust” (UK) -
Friends (41%), TV (40%),
Friends (45%), Online
Online news (39%),
news (40%), TV (35%),
Newspapers (38%)
Newspapers (23%)
Source - TNS
Tuesday 24 March 2009

Regional papers have
particular difficulties
• According to one report, no UK
regional paper has over 127
Google reader subscribers (The
Guardian has 118,000)
• According to Northwestern Uni in
the US, 62% of consumers have
never visited their local paper
website
• According to Pew Research in the
US, only 33% say they’d really
miss their local paper if it went
• Enders Analysis says regional
papers in the UK will see a 48% ad
drop 2007-2012 (FT 12/3/09)
Tuesday 24 March 2009

The word of mouth world changes everything
Tuesday 24 March 2009

\"Imagine that you walked
into a 400-year old market
where the clerks hand you
and every other customer
an identical bag containing
exactly the same mix of
some 50 items and they
tell you it contains what
the supermarket's
manager thought you and
everyone else should or
would like to eat.
“Despite its venerable history,
would you shop at this market
again?\"
(Online journalism pundit Vin
Crosbie)
Tuesday 24 March 2009

Facebook is now a
bigger source of
traffic for some sites
than Google
(AdAge)
Twitter now has more
views than UK
newspapers online
(Hitwise)
Tuesday 24 March 2009

What’s the future?
\"Not all readers demand such quality,
but the educated, opinion-leading,
news-junkie core of the audience
always will. They will insist on it as a
defense against \"persuasive
communication,\" the euphemism for
advertising, public relations and spin
that exploits the confusion of
information overload.
“Readers need and want to be
equipped with truth-based defenses.”
Philip Meyer, author of The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving
Journalism in the Information Age
Tuesday 24 March 2009

People still want quality reporting
• Though trust in online news is • Rather than being all things to all
high, that doesn’t include blogs people, publications that appeal
to a more specialised audience
have a better chance of survival
• In the UK 6% ‘highly trust’ blogs,
10% worldwide (TNS)
• For example, a Deloitte study
showed that 75% of UK
• Delivery mechanisms,
consumers enjoy reading
interactivity, personalisation is
magazines, despite the fact that
different - the need for quality
they could find that info online
isn’t
Tuesday 24 March 2009

“Those papers that wake
up in time will become a
journalistic hybrid
combining the best aspects
of traditional print
newspapers with the best
of what the Web brings to
the table.”
(Arianna Huffington)
A hybrid future?
Tuesday 24 March 2009

The road ahead for brands
Tuesday 24 March 2009

Online exposure isn’t second best
Online news outperforms print on reach AND credibility. Also, think
about all the times you forwarded on an online article vs kept and
handed on a print article.
Tuesday 24 March 2009

TV is holding
its own
• “TV usage is at an all-time high, and
yet there's a lot more people using the
Internet. Part of the answer is that it's
happening simultaneously\" (Nielsen)
• TV is successfully bleeding into the
Web - 70% of Brits watch TV and surf
the Internet at the same time (Blinxx)
• Broadcasters and programme makers
realise - The Internet is a brand
extension, it doesn’t canabilise viewers
• We may not want our news in print.
But we still want our telly on the box
Tuesday 24 March 2009

Make online an integrated part of your media campaign, not
something handled in isolation
Tuesday 24 March 2009

Look at interactive
over static media
Tuesday 24 March 2009

Finally - If every
person can now be
a media publisher
online, so can
every brand
What are you doing to produce
and disseminate content that
people want to hear and talk
about?
Tuesday 24 March 2009

Thank you for your time!
Any questions -
dirk@thisiscow.com
Tuesday 24 March 2009

Further details on some of the
With thanks for the images (taken
research:
from Flickr via a creative
★Google reader subscribers and
commons / attribution /
regional newspapers, from
commercial license)
Currybet.net - see
★JasonMchuff
http://bit.ly/pWBOM
★DRB62
★KYZ
★Ohglory ★We’ve published a series of articles
★Jojakeman
on this subject on our blog - http://
★Cliff1066
★Joshuafavis www.thisisherd.com
★Mattymatt
★Canpac
★A lot of the stats from the
★norrmairiz
★irargerich presentation have additionally been
★Johnlegear taken from TNS ‘Digital World /
★Tonythemisfit
Digital Life’, download from
★ehnmark
★liberalmind http://bit.ly/M3wGp
★avlxyz
★Svadilfari
★John2205
★Michaelheileman
★Vidiot
★Philromans
Tuesday 24 March 2009