Advertising spending is expected to significantly grow this year, according to a report by eMarketer. That is great for media--both producers of and consumers of. That is in the aggregate. Within categories we are looking at continued, permanent realignment.
The other headline within the report is that 2012 will be the first year that total online ad spend will surpass print ad spend. Of course, that is not surprising as innovation is rapidly occurring in digital media--still on the web and even faster with all of the mobile and tablet device development. And consumers are adopting, flocking to, and loving these new ways of consuming content. The only headlines about print are seemingly about shrinking circulation and attempts by publishers to switch their readerships to online before it is too late and they are lost to new digital competitors.
This also has been forecasted. In Mary Meeker's online trends presentation from 2010, there was an ominous and unavoidable slide that showed the time spent per media by consumers against the ad spend by media by advertisers. eMarketer's updated report from December 2011 shows the continuation of the trend. The obvious conclusion is that advertisers are still spending a disproportionate amount on print media compared to where their audience is. And given the old saying that half of mass advertising is wasted, and online advertising at least promises a more targeted approach, it is reasonable to expect the equilibrium of ads to consumption should actually have a higher digital spend proportionally at the expense of print. So 2012 may simply be the inflection point.
So the growth of advertising, and therefore the subsidization of media growth is a great thing. Media is not dead. Even journalism is not dead. Money is out there for life and growth, it just won't be going to the same balance of players as before. As a consumer, I'm fine with this. As a traditional media participant, this is the serious challenge and new reality.
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