As stated a number of times already the biggest problem for the newspapers has been the important loss of advertising revenues. It was in part due to the financial crisis the world is going through in the last few years and in part to the loss of market share to the internet advertising. This loss should only grow bigger in the next few years as expressed in the following graphic:
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If the evolution follows the trend that is predicted here, by 2012 newspapers and Internet will have almost the same market share. And if the numbers of 2003 are looked at, there was still a big difference at that time (28% to 13% in favor of the newspapers). This is the first general problem the newspapers had to face lately.
The second problem is part of the previous one that was just discussed. It is the loss of classified ads to the Internet. This type of advertising has been an important part of the newspapers revenue for a long time. But in the last few years they have lost a significant part of these ads. More and more sites are dedicated to job, car or real estate ads.
Those sites offer services that the newspapers cannot compete with. On the Internet it becomes much easier to search for exactly what you are looking for and very quickly. You can access the information you need at any time of the day. All these factors lead to the shift of the classified ads from the print to the digital.
Additionally newspapers had to face the concurrence of the free press, which is relatively young in Switzerland. As expressed in the introduction, the influence of the free press on subscription newspapers in Switzerland will not be analyzed here. But it should at least be mentioned that it was a big part of the problems subscription newspapers had to face. The problem is that free press offer interesting advertising spaces because a lot of people read 20 Minuten for instance. And because of that large audience some advertisers have a tendency to shift to the free press. And since this type of press is free a lot of people read it, even if it is only a quick look. Some people even canceled their subscription to other newspapers because they thought free press was enough to inform them.
The last major problem is the loss of readers. Although it is not yet as problematic as the loss of advertising revenues, it is a cause for concern for the traditional press. As seen in section 3.2 daily newspapers are struggling since the early nineties. Part of the explanation lies in the fact that Internet and the new media are more and more available to the public. And people use those resources to get information they need. The information is quicker and accessible almost wherever you are.
Those four problems are the major challenges the newspaper had to face in the last ten years. In the next sections the impact of the Internet and the new media will be discussed in more details.
26 WAN World Digital Media Trends
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