Mainstream media meltdown

From Chris Anderson's blog:

On the occasion of today's gruesome statistics on the continuing fall of newspapers, here's an updated look at mainstream entertainment and media in decline (April's version is here).

Down:

• Box Office: down by 7% this year (tickets per capita have fallen every year since 2001). 
• Newspapers: circulation, which peaked in 1987, is declining faster than ever and is down another 2.6% so far this year. 
• Music: Sales are down another 5.7% this year; although digital downloads (still just 6% of the business) are climbing nicely. 
• Radio: down 4% this year alone, continuing a multi-decade decline.
• Books: down by 7% in 2004 (but see comments  below for discussion)

Mixed:

• DVDs: sales growth is slowing dramatically, from 29% last year to single digits this year.
• TV: Total viewership is still rising, but as channels proliferate and the audience fragments the rating of the average show continues to decline.
• Magazines: Ad revenues are up a bit although the number of ad pages is flat (they're charging more per page). Circulation is also flat, while newsstand sales are at an all-time low. 
• Videogames: it's the final few months of the current generation of consoles, which tends to the trough of the buying cycle. Sales were down 20% in Sept, but will probably pick up by Christmas with the launch of the Xbox 360.

Up:

• Internet advertising:
  --Banners: Up 10% this year
  --Keywords: Google revenues up 96%

I'm going to save this to my PDA for those moments when I'm getting harassed by guys from MSM who like to tell me about how great newspapers are doing.

I should add:
- podcasting advertising revenues - up 1000% this year on last year :-)

 

On the occasion of today's gruesome statistics on the continuing fall of newspapers, here's an updated look at mainstream entertainment and media in decline (April's version is here).

Down:

• Box Office: down by 7% this year (tickets per capita have fallen every year since 2001). 
• Newspapers: circulation, which peaked in 1987, is declining faster than ever and is down another 2.6% so far this year. 
• Music: Sales are down another 5.7% this year; although digital downloads (still just 6% of the business) are climbing nicely. 
• Radio: down 4% this year alone, continuing a multi-decade decline.
• Books: down by 7% in 2004 (but see comments  below for discussion)

Mixed:

• DVDs: sales growth is slowing dramatically, from 29% last year to single digits this year.
• TV: Total viewership is still rising, but as channels proliferate and the audience fragments the rating of the average show continues to decline.
• Magazines: Ad revenues are up a bit although the number of ad pages is flat (they're charging more per page). Circulation is also flat, while newsstand sales are at an all-time low. 
• Videogames: it's the final few months of the current generation of consoles, which tends to the trough of the buying cycle. Sales were down 20% in Sept, but will probably pick up by Christmas with the launch of the Xbox 360.

Up:

• Internet advertising:
  --Banners: Up 10% this year
  --Keywords: Google revenues up 96%

Comments

[Phillip Molly Malone]

How do you figure the 1000% for podcasting? Wouldn't it be infinite? (i.e. this year figure divide by last years (or TY/LY) in the case of podcasting ?/0 is infinite!)
I should probably keep quiet.
Molly

[Phillip Molly Malone]

How do you figure the 1000% for podcasting? Wouldn't it be infinite? (i.e. this year figure divide by last years (or TY/LY) in the case of podcasting ?/0 is infinite!)
I should probably keep quiet.
Molly

[Rob Irwin]

The stats bear some closer analysis before anyone - and I mean, anyone - draws hasty conclusions.

Take the sales growth of DVDs. All that stat really says to me is that sales have been growing and growing... and have now tapered off. It's nothing sinister - it's natural. As machines have become cheaper and cheaper, sales have grown, year on year, in double digits.

Now they have reached such a high, it's hard for them to grow at the same rate. The market is reaching it's natural limit.