Signs of promise and peril for American news organisations
Where is the good news? Last year local TV stations, especially those in swing
states like Florida and Ohio, got a welcome boost from the $3 billion spent on
TV advertising during the election. And newspapers are now starting in large
numbers to demand payment for their digital content. Pew reckons that around a
third of America’s 1,380 dailies have started (or will soon launch) paywalls,
inspired by the success of the New York Times, where
640,000 subscribers get the digital edition and circulation now accounts for a
larger portion of revenues than advertising.
Boosting circulation revenue will help stem losses from print advertising, since
it has become clear that digital advertising will not be enough. For every $16
lost in print advertising last year, newspapers made only around $1 from digital
ads. The bulk of the $37.3 billion spent on digital advertising in 2012 went to
five firms: Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft and AOL
