Print to take on Web Media at its own Game
Traditional print media have responded to the threat of internet advertising by establishing their own strong web presence. But does this mean the end of the morning newspaper?
Statistics released by the Internet Advertising Bureau have revealed that advertising spend on the internet has now overtaken that in the national newspapers, and, with a total of two billion pounds spent on web advertising in 2006, the gap with TV advertising is closing too. In fact Google overtook Channel Four in advertising revenue last year!
As a result those publications that have not moved with the times have suffered. There have been some high profile casualties, for example, the company which owned the Oxford Courier and Oxford Journal has gone into administration recently. (For more information on the advertising decline follow the link – “Declining ad revenue hits traditional press hard“)
In a repsonse to the online news threat, the Western Daily Press has used News Editor Cathy Ellis as a TV news presenter. We at Montage think she is doing a good job! The newspaper has a videocast set up in order that Cathy can give you the latest news and comment on today’s Western Daily Press headlines.
Using new media to good effect, the Bath Chronicle’s” front page splash on the anger of residents kept awake by night-time rail engineering work was illustrated on its website with an audio file of the noise itself. News editor Paul Wiltshire said: “We couldn’t do justice to the sheer level of disruption this work was causing to people in print, but we could demonstrate its impact powerfully on the website. It gave a striking extra dimension to our coverage.”
The online news provided by local press and by newswires such as Reuters is great for the news junkies here at Montage. However, once we have read the morning news paper and digested most of the headlines online through out the day, should we bother with evening newspapers at all?
I personally think that the web resources of the Financial Times, Telegraph and the Guardian are actually better than the printed versions, as these include blogs, podcasts and video with the latest news.
The focus on getting our up-to-the-minute news from Ft.com on our blackberrys may be a reserve for young IT savvy professionals, but surely the newspaper traditionalist will be steadfast to the Sunday morning newspapers?
Only time will tell how the new media revolution will truely affect the traditional media, but I would expect one almighty scrap over the next year!
