The unstoppable rise of the internet and its affect on traditional media engaged panellists and delegates at yesterday’s, MediaTelINSIGHT Online Media Seminar, with Giles Ivey, sales director for AOL, claiming that “no-one in new media thinks TV and press are dead.”
Despite recent panic, with forecasters predicting online to take adspend away from traditional media, Ivey pointed out that when television was first launched in the 1950s, “people speculated that press was dead and that certainly hasn’t happened.”
Interestingly online media owners are buying into traditional media, while traditional media are moving into new media.
AOL currently invests in TV and press adverts, while Google is also involved in print media, through its Adwords tool.
According to Chris Ward, commercial director of MSN, however, the online company has “no plans to move into offline media.”
The panellists claim that examples of traditional media who have successfully launched their brand online include the BBC, Channel 4 and the Guardian. Ray Snoddy pointed out, however, that all of these do not have to make an absolute profit, as they are each funded in different ways. Snoddy claimed that no traditional players had “cracked” the online market yet.
Andrew Walmsley, founder of i-level, argued that the internet was “hugely difficult for a publisher to get into.”
However, speaking from the floor, Mike Anderson, managing director of News International said that one of the main problems with moving into new media was the lack of knowledge about the size of potential markets.
He asserted that one of traditional media’s strengths was “knowing how to make money and work brands, whereas currently people don’t know how to make money on the internet.”
The panel agreed that work needed to be done to measure the potential of the internet, as well as connect with its audience.
The MediaTelINSIGHT Online Media Report is available to subscribers from the Executive Reports section above, or for non-subscribers to purchase at www.mediatelinsight.co.uk/reports priced £225. The report features the latest forecasts and current marketplace dynamics for the Online market.
