The advertising industry determines the future of journalism in the print sector
With circulation numbers on the decline, advertisers hold the future of journalism in the print industry in their hands. Will they give the critical public a chance, or is it really all about ratings?
Print media circulations are declining under pressure from the Internet, and with them the revenues of publishing houses. According to Wemf advertising statistics, 11.5 percent fewer advertisements were placed in the Swiss press in December 2008 than in the same period the previous year. All publishing houses have to make savings - the time that newspapers are supposed to have left is constantly being shortened. Marc Fisher, editor of the Washington Post (in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung) no longer gives them ten years, but only five.
Online, where everyone is pushing and where the future of many print products will be decided, there is not yet much to earn. The competition is no longer the other newspapers in the region, but all the websites in the world. Online, payment is no longer based on circulation, reach or readership, but on unique clients, visitors and page impressions. The clicks are measured. Up to now, the advertising money has gone to the portals with the best figures, i.e. quotas. However, due to the constant analysis of ratings and the resulting adjustment of content, these portals are inevitably becoming more tabloid-like - it is no longer journalistic relevance that counts, but the click rate, which threatens to become the sole yardstick. "The readers want it that way", is what online editorial teams like to say. But just because click rates can now be measured, should every publication revolve around sex, celebrities and monsters, which, as has been shown, is what the readers of newspaper portals prefer to click on?
Tyler Brûlé, successful publisher of the English-language luxury magazine Monocle, predicts (in the magazine) a future with only two market segments in the print sector, namely (expensive) elite daily newspapers and magazines with intelligent analysis and opinions on the one hand and (free) tabloid trash with a gigantic circulation on the other. In order to achieve the gigantic circulation, the free products have to be aggressively marketed to the reader, because the competition for attention is fierce. This happens on paper in the form of free newspapers and on the Internet with tabloid portals. It is becoming apparent that both forms will have less and less to do with serious journalism for cost reasons.
Mostly just a bad copy
Unsettled by the rapidly changing income situation, publishers such as Ringier and Tamedia, previously known as reliable journalism producers, are increasingly taking this route. But the advertising effect is not at all certain. More constantly clicking, unfocused readers may load more advertising banners and read more pages, but it has not been proven which advertising actually interests readers or even leads to a purchase.
In a desperate effort to make money online, and to do so immediately, more and more portals are becoming a poor imitation of the (long lucrative) pioneer Spiegel Online. This is destroying journalistic diversity - an abrupt end to a writing culture and reader loyalty that has been built up over decades. One could despair at the unimaginativeness of the local publishers - but soon one has become so accustomed to it that the bad news reported at ever shorter intervals hardly affect one anymore. If you are a patient for too long, at some point you will no longer receive a visit.
The future of serious journalism lies to a large extent in the hands of the advertising industry. After all, it is the advertisers and media planners who decide in which environment they want to place their products. Because there has been little or very imprecise measurement in the print sector to date, the private sector has been able to perform tasks that offer added value to society without the help of the state. With an exclusive fixation on quotas, many forms of presentation that have evolved over decades are in danger of dying out: Reports, investigative research, critical reviews of current culture, historical observations, in short: the in-depth examination of topics that are not tabloid fare is under threat.
Advertisers' desire to mix content and advertising is growing from year to year. But independent journalism cannot exist like this. Those who are convinced that they are advertising a good product have no need to intervene in editorial processes. They rely on the presence of their product not in, but alongside the journalistic content. And has it reviewed by independent publicists without interfering. This is done one way or another on the Internet; the fantasy of controlled reporting on a product is a thing of the past thanks to the democratization of the media, for example through the existence of blogs.
Advertising money for critical media
If journalism, this valuable asset of the critical public, is not to become a privilege of the wealthy class (as it once was), then advertising money must also flow to places where readers are not baited with sex and sensationalism, where outrage management does not reign. Then advertising money must flow to those media that are consumed by critical readers. People buy products because they are convinced of them and not because they have been persuaded to do so. Whether online, on paper or portable will no longer matter in the future. Mobility will not stop at content or advertising.
Ronnie Grob
Online, where everyone is pushing and where the future of many print products will be decided, there is not yet much to earn. The competition is no longer the other newspapers in the region, but all the websites in the world. Online, payment is no longer based on circulation, reach or readership, but on unique clients, visitors and page impressions. The clicks are measured. Up to now, the advertising money has gone to the portals with the best figures, i.e. quotas. However, due to the constant analysis of ratings and the resulting adjustment of content, these portals are inevitably becoming more tabloid-like - it is no longer journalistic relevance that counts, but the click rate, which threatens to become the sole yardstick. "The readers want it that way", is what online editorial teams like to say. But just because click rates can now be measured, should every publication revolve around sex, celebrities and monsters, which, as has been shown, is what the readers of newspaper portals prefer to click on?
Tyler Brûlé, successful publisher of the English-language luxury magazine Monocle, predicts (in the magazine) a future with only two market segments in the print sector, namely (expensive) elite daily newspapers and magazines with intelligent analysis and opinions on the one hand and (free) tabloid trash with a gigantic circulation on the other. In order to achieve the gigantic circulation, the free products have to be aggressively marketed to the reader, because the competition for attention is fierce. This happens on paper in the form of free newspapers and on the Internet with tabloid portals. It is becoming apparent that both forms will have less and less to do with serious journalism for cost reasons.
Mostly just a bad copy
Unsettled by the rapidly changing income situation, publishers such as Ringier and Tamedia, previously known as reliable journalism producers, are increasingly taking this route. But the advertising effect is not at all certain. More constantly clicking, unfocused readers may load more advertising banners and read more pages, but it has not been proven which advertising actually interests readers or even leads to a purchase.
In a desperate effort to make money online, and to do so immediately, more and more portals are becoming a poor imitation of the (long lucrative) pioneer Spiegel Online. This is destroying journalistic diversity - an abrupt end to a writing culture and reader loyalty that has been built up over decades. One could despair at the unimaginativeness of the local publishers - but soon one has become so accustomed to it that the bad news reported at ever shorter intervals hardly affect one anymore. If you are a patient for too long, at some point you will no longer receive a visit.
The future of serious journalism lies to a large extent in the hands of the advertising industry. After all, it is the advertisers and media planners who decide in which environment they want to place their products. Because there has been little or very imprecise measurement in the print sector to date, the private sector has been able to perform tasks that offer added value to society without the help of the state. With an exclusive fixation on quotas, many forms of presentation that have evolved over decades are in danger of dying out: Reports, investigative research, critical reviews of current culture, historical observations, in short: the in-depth examination of topics that are not tabloid fare is under threat.
Advertisers' desire to mix content and advertising is growing from year to year. But independent journalism cannot exist like this. Those who are convinced that they are advertising a good product have no need to intervene in editorial processes. They rely on the presence of their product not in, but alongside the journalistic content. And has it reviewed by independent publicists without interfering. This is done one way or another on the Internet; the fantasy of controlled reporting on a product is a thing of the past thanks to the democratization of the media, for example through the existence of blogs.
Advertising money for critical media
If journalism, this valuable asset of the critical public, is not to become a privilege of the wealthy class (as it once was), then advertising money must also flow to places where readers are not baited with sex and sensationalism, where outrage management does not reign. Then advertising money must flow to those media that are consumed by critical readers. People buy products because they are convinced of them and not because they have been persuaded to do so. Whether online, on paper or portable will no longer matter in the future. Mobility will not stop at content or advertising.
Ronnie Grob
