Discussing the issues surrounding the rapidly evolving print industry, the majority of panellists at yesterday morning’s MediaTel Group seminar expressed high levels of optimism over the press’ prospects.
Journalist and media analyst, Ray Snoddy, expressed concerns for the industry but said things weren’t as bad as they had been reported to be.
“There is a real and palpable threat to the long-term existence of newspapers and the threat is greater this year than last year, but the greatest danger of all is that this threat gets exaggerated and that the newspaper industry becomes overly pessimistic.
“The newspaper industry is still really in remarkably good health. The reason I think we all get very depressed by looking at downward trends, I think there is a logical fallacy here because they’re always taken in isolation. Newspapers are declining year after year, yes, but not nearly as much as broadcast.
“There’s a hugely expanding media out there, media opportunities, media choice, against the background of greater social choice and a more affluent society. You could almost argue that newspapers are the most stable media of all against this era of dramatic change.
“Newspapers equal serendipity over advertising and information and please dear God market them better and stop being so hung up,” he said.
Dave King, executive director of the Telegraph, said it will be the customer who dictates the future of the press. “We’ve got to provide [what they want]. If we don’t deliver it, we are dead,” he said.
Mike Rowley, classified and digital ad director at the Evening Standard added: “We don’t really know what is going to happen and therefore we need to put lots of product out there and move quickly with the market.”
There is a 28 page report on the future of the press available from MediaTel INSIGHT www.mediatelinsight.co.uk/reports (free to all INSIGHT subscribers), which includes long-term trends for national newspaper circulation and readership, as well as the latest advertising revenue and circulation forecasts and an analysis of current marketplace dynamics.
