TV ad spend overtaken by online
Joe Trippi points to a Guardian article discussing how internet advertising has outstripped TV advertising for the first time in the UK:
The UK has become the first major economy where advertisers spend more on internet advertising than on television advertising, with a record £1.75bn online spend in the first six months of the year.
The milestone marks a watershed for the embattled TV industry, the leading ad medium in the UK for almost half a century. It has taken the internet little more than a decade to become the biggest advertising sector in the UK.
UK advertisers spent £1.75bn on internet advertising in the six months to the end of June, a 4.6% year-on-year increase, according to a report by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. To put this in perspective, in 1998, when the IAB first measured internet advertising, just £19.4m was spent online.
The internet now accounts for 23.5% of all advertising money spent in the UK, while TV ad spend accounts for 21.9% of marketing budgets.
This may just be a blip caused by advertisers pushing for value for money and seeing online as the route. However long-term internet advertising will more than likely be the dominant form. The Guardian notes some of the problems faced by the industry:
Despite the seemingly inexorable rise of internet ad spend, a closer examination of the IAB’s figures show that the recession has had an impact. In the first quarter £920m was spent on online advertising, representing 8.6% year-on-year growth. However, in the second quarter, spend fell almost £100m to £832m, representing only a 1.1% increase on the amount spent in the same period last year.
Blip aside, this is of course a more worrying story for TV than a positive one for online and it is not wholly good for online either. It would be an easy time for online advocates to get carried away but it should be treated with caution. Especially considering the costs associated with TV production when compared to online and how much TV content is reproduced online with advertising running alongside it. Of course there is a possibility that when economic growth returns the TV spend won’t come along with it and this blip turns more permanent.
Awaiting the next figures with interest.
HT Laura McGann
Sholin on the term newspaper
Industry thinker Ryan Sholin has an interesting post where he argues that the term newspaper is an inaccurate way of describing a large and diverse range of publications that produce news.
I’ve been saying those words in person to people a lot lately:
“There is no newspapers.”
What’s it mean?
It means that if you’re in the business of publishing pronouncements, predictions, prayers, analysis, criticism, or full on takedowns related to the current state of the newspaper industry, please understand that despite the convenience it would provide for said ruminations, there is no such thing as a monolithic, uniform entity called “newspapers.”
You can read it in full here.
I don’t think I agree with him on this one. If the newspaper still has a physical form and if it prints news whether it’s a small-town weekly, an evening paper, or a national broadsheet – it is a newspaper.
Of course there are differences between publications (size, ownership, language, audience, aim etc). But like any large classification there will always be a sub-classifications. I don’t think we need to lose the large ‘monolithic’ classification to better understand the common and individual issues that face these different types of publications, or do I dare say newspapers, as a whole.
Being more mindful of sub-classifications,
Blathnaid
Future-proofing: Ideas for journalists
Econsultancy.com has a good article for people who find themselves bamboozled by the world of online journalism.
It makes some good points particularly about producing video and building up an online profile.
However, I disagree with a few points:
Point 6:
Embrace Twitter. Twitter is simply a huge echo chamber made up of millions of people. It is absolutely a source of news, but it is not ‘journalism’. That’s your job: to make sense of noise, to validate sources and stories, and to unearth the news. As such journalists should tune into Twitter. Follow influencers and use Twitter as a filter. People will follow you back and you can use Twitter to create an awareness of your work.
Twitter may turn out to be a fleeting platform. Personally I have found it to be very overrated (here’s a NYT article on how kids aren’t sold on the platform). There are many things to prioritise before you end up wasting hours reading your Twitter stream.
Point 15:
Exclusives are passe. All journalists love a good scoop, but an exclusive story doesn’t stay exclusive for very long these days. TMZ bagged the Michael Jackson exclusive but there were more than 1,000 copycat stories on Google News within an hour. Exclusives are great for kudos and links, but ‘scoops of interpretation’ are perhaps just as important. And if you cannot interpret the story then speak to people who can help. Try to join up the dots for readers.
Firstly, the Michael Jackson story was breaking news. It wasn’t really a scoop and TMZ was just the first outlet on it. The Telegraph’s expenses scandal series is proof, if needed, that fantastic exclusives/scoops still exist – they are just few and far between (mostly because of the funding needed).
Points 16 &17:
Objectivity is overrated. Only a very small proportion of published articles in the mainstream media can be considered ‘objective’. Journalists may work hard to file truly objective copy, but any number of editors and sub-editors – not to mention publishers, proprietors, commercial bulldogs and influential advertisers – can transform stories beyond belief. Perhaps it would be better to position yourself on one side of the fence, rather than trying to sit on it? Obviously this won’t work for every kind of story.
Subjectivity kicks ass. Considering the above, is there a way of training your brain to insert a little bit more opinion into your stories? It might be that you’re not allowed to do this right now, given your platform (go start a blog immediately!), or perhaps the story doesn’t allow for it, but my favourite writers all have a strong voice and are happy to holler from time to time. Back your own views. Develop your voice. And don’t be afraid to express an opinion. After all, opinions can help put you on the radar, can help you find new work, and may in fact be the future of the news industry (if they aren’t already).
Obviously I disagree with these points. News journalists must always strive for objectivity as The Guardian so succinctly puts it ‘comment is free, but facts are sacred’.
Guardian seeks public’s help in expenses probe
Guardian.co.uk is calling on its readers to use its research tools to search through some 700,000 MP expenses documents to see if there are more instances where a claim needs investigation.
It is asking people to read through the documents and when they see a possible irregularity hit the ‘investigate this’ button and the Guardian will take a closer look.
There are so many documents to review that the Guardian’s crowdsourcing move makes sense – and what a great story to use it on.
Looking forward to seeing how this project develops! And to the future twists, turns and revelations in the expenses story.
If you want to help the Guardian with its research click here
RTE.ie on Campaign Daily
I got the chance today to go on RTE One’s live election show Campaign Daily to talk about the election website with Bryan Dobson. Check it out on the RTE Player here (for people outside of Ireland try here) it’s around the 45 minute mark.
Don’t forget to check out RTE.ie’s election Twitter feed
Something I’ve been working on…RTÉ.ie/elections
RTÉ Elections 2009
In the last few weeks quite a bit of my time has been spent coordinating the website for the 5 June elections. It was launched this week and you can visit it here.
Check out the group blog Campaign Daily – with great contributions this week from Mark Little (who had an excellent blog on RTÉ.ie for the US elections), Miriam O’Callaghan and Cian McCormack.
Visit us at Twitter @RTE_Elections and while you’re there follow Prime Time’s new Twitter stream @RTE_PrimeTime as well.
There’s lots of great material on the main site including an excellent guide to PR-STV by UCD’s Prof Richard Sinnott (the system of voting used in Ireland), chapters from the just published and widely discussed All Politics is Local, lots of great audio and video highlights from RTÉ’s best news and current affairs programmes and features written by young journalists covering the European Parliament elections.
It’ll be a busy couple of weeks ahead as the website keeps on growing and the elections get closer but I’m looking forward to it particularly the count weekend!
Blathnaid
P.S By the way send us in your election photos!
