Internet advertising has overtaken press in USA

A PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report issued yesterday in the USA claims that the internet is poised to overtake newspapers as the second largest U.S. advertising medium by revenue behind television.

This is a significant moment in advertising as traditional media have steadily been overtaken by the Internet in less than 20 years. How long until Internet advertising rolls past Television? And here in Australia, how long until the Internet becomes the number two advertising medium?

Here is the story in full from The Australian….

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Will Apple save print media too?

A very familiar scenario could be about to play out.

A decade ago the music industry was reeling from the sudden loss of revenue thanks to the likes of Napster and other peer-to-peer networks. Free downloads were “robbing” music publishers of sales. They got aggressive, sued individuals for downloading and chased Napster into oblivion but the fact remained that the music industry hadn’t kept up wit the changing digital landscape and didn’t have a model for the 21st Century.

Then along came Apple with the iPod and the iTunes store. They made it easy, legal and affordable to download music and quickly struck deals with almost every music publisher. A new model was created. It wasn’t necessarily as lucrative for the publishers but it kept them alive and in the game.

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Source: Mumbrella

The Austereo duo of Hamish and Andy dominated the Australian Commercial Radio Awards in a ceremony which snubbed stablemate The Kyle & Jackie O Show despite it having previously had a strong presence on the shortlist.

The shortlist had been drawn up prior to the scandal of Kyle & Jackie O’s notorious lie detector segment, while the final round of judging coincided with the furore.

Hamish & Andy won the top prize of best on air team along with best networked program, best station promotion, and best multimedia execution. The show’s Sam Kavanagh won best show producer.

Meanwhile, 2GB’s Ray Hadley won three awards.

WINNERS (Section winners are labelled as Country, Provincial, Non Metropolitan and Metropolitan):

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Last week Australian News Ltd supremo John Hartigan stirred up every media blogger in the Southern Hemisphere with a speech to the National Press Club. Hartigan took a swipe at bloggers as well as new media sites like Mumbrella and Crikey.

He also toed the company line that we will all be happily paying for news online soon due to the quality of the journalism (which was no doubt aided by the typo in his own paper).

Naturally the blogosphere were up in arms and Mumbrella received a gazillion comments helpfully pointing out that Harto had missed the point and, as @NickHaC so eloquently put it, “you will miss us when we are gone has never been a compelling business model”.

Anyway it occurred to me that this whole episode highlights both the shortcomings and potential solution to the online press predicament. Hartigan is seemingly trying to alienate the blogosphere yet generated substantial links and coverage online with his spray. Why not use the blogosphere (and Twitterverse) to your advantage?

Embrace the blogosphere!

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Guest Report: by Renai LeMay of ZDNet.com.au news

This commentary is the modified text of a speech given to the Insight Exchange’s Twitter’s Impact on Media & Journalism event in June 2009.

In my daily professional life, I often feel as though I am a medieval knight who has been called into action to defend with sword and shield the honour of a great lady of noble birth.

That lady’s name, of course, is Journalism.

Now, there is no doubt that she is currently beset on all sides.

Her bountiful wealth of gold and silver is speedily disappearing as digital mediums demolish her traditional revenue models. Her social media rivals for our attention grow ever more beautiful as time goes on. And of course her virtue is beset by public relations professionals, whose numbers are legion.

And yet, I take solace from the fact that she has chosen the right champion.

I am not one of the traditional defenders of journalism.

I am not a 60-something newspaper editor who cannot understand the internet. I am not the chief executive of a television studio who is suing YouTube for re-publishing his TV news clips. And I am not a media magnate with a sprawling publishing empire that needs to keep his share price up by talking up his print assets.
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Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation recently declared “the days of free news online to be over.”

Printing press originally uploaded by Travel Aficionadoonline to be over."

NEWSFLASH for Mr Murdoch: the news press no longer control their destiny. The audience is now in charge.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about newspaper publishers investigating new business models. Most of the talk has been the result of declining revenue for news press as classified advertising has migrated online.

Contrary to popular blogger opinion, newspapers aren’t dying because people don’t read newspapers anymore, or because we all get our news from the Internet. While there has been a small decline in subscriptions and sales of the printed newspaper, this isn’t the killer. Its the evaporation of the “rivers of gold” that classifieds represented which has hit the industry hardest.

Subsequently, declining revenues have resulted in cost-cutting that is now affecting quality journalism. And that’s a major concern.

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Newcastle and the Hunter Valley will be promoted to the nation as an ideal place to do business following the launch of the Hunter Advantage initiative last week. Here is how The Herald newspaper announced the initiative:

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Newcastle, Australia

The Herald, Newcastle’s main newspaper, has finally acknowledged the existence of Twitter. Today’s Herald has one story dedicated to Twitter and another mentioning it.

Sarcasm aside, this is actually relatively significant. Newcastle is often used as a test-market in Australia as it is seen to be an excellent microcosm of Australian society. They say that if products can sell here, they can sell anywhere in Australia.

Newcastle is also a pretty conservative town, slow to adopt new technology and innovations. If Australia is 3 years behind the US (as is often claimed) then Newcastle is usually 6 to 12 months behind Sydney. That’s not a criticsm, just a reality.

So when the local paper in Newcastle starts talking about Twitter as the “new must-have communications method” then you know Twitter is starting to make an impact in Australia.

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In a first for Newcastle and The Hunter Valley, The Post newspaper has launched an online version of their free weeklies.

The Post Digital Edition has just launched, providing readers and advertisers with additional opportunities. Each new edition launches 9am each Tuesday.

Advertisers now have the opportunity to link directly form their advertisement to their website, and have their advertisements be seen for much longer in the archived editions.

New online advertising packages will be available from April 2009.

The only negative is that the reader system is flash based and therefore not searchable. The Post are missing a massive opportunity to create a long tail of searchable information that would help them and their customers.

But overall, congratulations to The Post for taking a leap into the 21st Century and good luck with this new initiative.