MSP raises issue of reduction in newspaper advertising by Scottish government and local councils

A debate in Scottish Parliament raised MSPs’ concerns with the manner in which Herald group journalists have been made redundant and forced to reapply for their jobs.

MSP Ted Brocklebank raised some additional concerns: he has asked written questions about the amount that is spent by the Scottish Government on local and national press advertising per annum, and requested similar figures from the councils.

Answers could reveal the threat to newspapers resulting from the rise in government and councils placing advertising online (via Jon Slattery’s blog).

Journalism.co.uk hopes to update on the story next week.

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The Media Business: Consumers see the true picture when ads disappear

The downturn in newspaper advertising is giving consumers a clearer picture of what they are getting in their paper: more wire copy, less quality editorial, argues Robert G. Picard. Full story…

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WAN Amsterdam: Digital will account for 43 per cent of newspaper advertising growth by 2012 according to PricewaterhouseCoopers

The global leader for the entertainment and media practice, at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Hong Kong, Marcel Fenez, argued that ‘traditional media isn’t dead’ on the last day of the WAN/World Editors Forum 11th Readership Conference (information courtesy of WAN conference updates).

The latest media and entertainment industry forecast from PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that global newspaper advertising will grow 2.9 per cent to 136.8 billion dollars in 2012, with digital advertising accounting for 43 per cent of the growth.

• Print advertising will grow 1.8 per cent to 123.3 billion dollars worldwide in 2012
• Digital advertising will grow 19.3 per cent to 13.4 billion dollars:
• While the growth rate for digital advertising will continue its impressive rise over the next five years, the total in 2012 will represent only 10 per cent of total print and digital newspaper advertising.

“Some people say that traditional media is dead. Well, it isn’t. For the next five years, it ain’t gonna be,” he said. “The death of traditional media is exaggerated, at least in a 5-year context.”

Fenez said the forecasts, based on consumer and industry sources, does not take into account the recent economic meltdown, which could have a negative impact on the figures.

Fenez reported:

• The generation that comes of age in 2012 will be the first that doesn’t know the pre-internet world. “We hear a lot about user generated content from the ‘net generation’. It’s very, very, very important. But premium content is still really valuable. Even the net generation values premium content. They’re tired of watching videos of a dog running up a tree.”
• Advertisers will take a ‘wait and see’ attitude and be cautious about spending in the first half of 2009. “They won’t do anything until mid-year. If they have the revenue, they’ll release their budgets.”
• Video games advertising is set to grow 17 per cent to 2012, though the revenue is still negligible. Most of the money being spent on game advertising is coming from television.
• “We’re on a journey of transition from traditional to digital: the first to probably go totally digital is the music industry. In 2011, the majority of revenues will be digital.”

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SFNblog (via Business 24-7): Newspaper advertising spend is up 33 per cent in the Arab region

Newspaper advertising spend in the Arab region has seen a 33 per cent increase in the first half of 2008 according to the half-annual report issued by Pan Arab Research Center (PARC).

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links for 2008-07-04

• News | Facebook closes app after second privacy violation – NMA
  Facebook has shut down one of the site’s most popular applications after ‘privacy violations’.
  The removal of Social Hi comes just one week after the site’s fourth biggest application Top Friends was pulled after a hacker made users’ private details publ
  (tags: facebook apps)
• Disillusioned Berliner Zeitung staff advertise for new proprietor | Media | guardian.co.uk
  Staff at the Berliner Zeitung newspaper in Germany are so unhappy with their owner, David Montgomery, that they took out an advert in a rival German newspaper advertising for a new proprietor.
  (tags: mecom DavidMontgomery germany newspapers)
• Social media copyright – a tangled web – Press Gazette
  Using material uploaded to the internet by users of social-media websites like YouTube, Facebook or personal blogs without permission is a risky approach for major publishers, barrister Christina Michalos of 5 Raymond Buildings warned the Media Law Confer
  (tags: socialmedia legal)

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