It’s been a hard year for newspapers. Copy-sales are down, advertising is down and, with the Covid, both of these doleful situations are even worse. No one wants to buy a newspaper; no one wants to advertise in one. In the past year, sales of newspapers have fallen by 29% says the Asociación de Medios de Información. Advertising revenue is 75% down on ten years ago. The hope has been the digital editions, with pop-ups, click-bait and maybe a paywall… But, there’s always another news-service at the click of a mouse that's without them…
The other tactic is to fire journalists, or pull back on real news or expenses or satellite offices and try and fill the paper with agency or promotional material which, of course, the reader doesn’t want. ElDiario.es says ‘…The printed newspaper is running out of time, publishers are reluctant to see it and that can cost them the flames of the paper house fire spreading to the digital town-house on which they propose to live…’. However, as Wolf Street says, most of the cyber-advertising these days goes to just two companies: ‘…The internet has changed the power structure of advertising, with Google and Facebook getting most of the spoils. This shift has been going on for years and has upended the newspaper publishing industry – long before Covid-19…’.
Business over Tapas - no advertising, no hard-selling. Subscriptions here. Facebook here.
I'm doing my bit, Lenox. Buying the Voz de Galicia every day during the latest lockdown, as I c an't read it in my regular bar. BTW, I wish no one was advertising on YouTube, interrupting my videos every few minutes . . . :-)
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