Newspaper Industry At Tipping Point; Online Media Stealing Readers and Ad Revenues

November 1st, 2005 11:16 AM

“IT'S OFFICIAL: 2005 WILL BE the newspaper industry's worst year since the last ad industry recession.”  

So began an article from yesterday’s Media Daily News.

“‘Sadly, 2005 is shaping up as the industry's worst year from a revenue growth perspective since the recession impacted 2001-2002 period,’ says the report from Goldman Sachs, adding a warning that meaningful growth in 2006 is ‘very unlikely.’"

The problem? Ad revenues, which continue to grow by a meager 1 percent nationally. By contrast, online newspaper revenues are forecast to grow by 25 percent next year.

The conclusion?

“[The newspaper industry is] besieged by flat ad revenues, falling stocks, and fleeing subscribers. Last week, Rishad Tobaccowala, chief innovation officer for Publicis Groupe, told a newspaper--the Chicago Tribune—‘newspapers are at a tipping point,’ in which online media will start to take more readership and more ad dollars. He added that newspapers are in the worst situation of all news media for growth as ‘the least visually engaging and least youth oriented’ medium.”

Hat-tip to the Drudge Report.