No established medium is ever going to lose revenue to the
internet, no-one is suffering at the hands of the direct marketers, and
no-one feels threatened by public relations or ambient media. At least
that’s the traditional media owners’ story.
Non-traditional media are expanding at an incredible rate. PR has grown
globally at well over 10 per cent a year for the last five years, while
internet ad revenues have risen 139 per cent in the last 12 months. Yet,
if we are to believe the public statements of TV, radio, magazine,
newspaper and poster owners, none of the above pose much of a
threat.
How can that be? The argument put forward by defensive traditional media
pundits is that the new-media are creating fresh business rather than
cannibalising the old. While this would make for a media utopia, it
seems improbable in the long run.
Most marketing budgets continue to rise year on year, but there are
obviously limits to their growth - especially in industries such as
tobacco and motoring where profit estimates have been revised downwards
in recent years. And it takes only one cautious statement from the Right
Honourable Chancellor to have people further pegging back those
budgets.
And markets do change. There is increasing evidence that recruitment
advertising - the staple diet of many business magazines - is shifting
online. Some traditional media, VNU for example, are responding by
rapidly ramping up their web presence, as evidenced by the launch of
Accountancy Age.com this week.
They are doing the right thing. The non-traditional media are having an
impact and the ostrich brigade might do well to hatch a few new ideas of
their own.
