The Newspapers Association of America compared US newspaper advertising revenue data from 2011 with data going back as far as 1950. In fact, that is precisely the year to which reference must be made to find a value as low as that recorded in 2011. In the graph, the curve grows up to 1989, then follows a relative descent and an ascent up to the peak of 63,5 billion dollars in 2003. From that moment on, the debacle begins until the almost vertical collapse starting from 2006, returning to levels of the 50s, i.e. approx 22,6 billion dollars in 2011 against 20 in 1950 (value discounted with inflation)
Losses amount to $35 billion in the last three years alone, and for those who have not adapted their business model to online distribution (alternatively, additionally or even exclusively), the damage has gone beyond the lost revenues. The causes? The development of information on the Internet, the success of the classified ad sites (eBay and Craigslist above all), but above all the advent of social Network. ROI, in the latter cases, has proved to be much higher than that of advertising campaigns in paper newspapers, but also than that of the online versions.
And in Italy What happen? The Council of Ministers will deal with publishing contributions tomorrow. Yes, because the survival of paper newspapers in our country, for a long time, was based on state grants and on conventions with this or that body of public administration. Today, both digital natives and newspapers that have gone online are benefiting from new possibilities of IT channels, but not all of them are yet independent from public funding.
In the draft of the government decree law, for example, there is a maximum ceiling on the amounts to be disbursed to enable compete more freely in the market all the realities of the sector: from press agencies to newspapers. The government is basically preparing the ground for one progressive elimination of contributions to publishing.
