Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer: Bleak future for traditional media

"The global advertising industry is not in a recession, but will remain at a permanently low level in the future." Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer confronted the assembled advertising industry with this gloomy forecast at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival on Wednesday. As reported by the Guardian, this pessimistic assessment was primarily intended as a warning for media companies, which have already been struggling with a significant slump in the advertising business for some time. According to Ballmer, they should no longer expect revenues to recover to pre-recession levels. "Revenues are increasingly migrating to the digital sector. Traditional broadcasting companies and print media will have to develop their business models based on the fact that they will only get a small slice of the advertising pie in future," says Ballmer.