Newspaper ad market: from bad to worse?

It's a grim time in the newspaper industry, and with the US newspapers about 5 years further down the track in suffering the effects of CraigsList and the free to air ad models, savvy European publishers shoudl be looking westwards for a glimpse of a future they want to avert. This article in the New York Times neatly sums up the problems, charting the fall of both audiences and ad revenues. Though interestingly they conclude it could take 5-10 years before the sector stabilises. Nice way of putting it: it could be 5-10 years before the majority have collapsed! The ad models are simply out of date, the audiences moving to more effective channels, and the economics of many print titles unworkable. I love newspapers, I've been priviledged enough to work for several, I was offered the editorship of a London freesheet when I was only 18, but the businesses need to adapt fast; revolutionary change in compressed timeframes, otherwise it's all over.

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