Media, Mistrust and Money
Mistrust in the news media has never been higher. It's easy to understand why because much of the news we see on television is really opinion and not news. Social media is the same.
This has had an effect on advertising and the companies that pay for ads on traditional and digital media. They have to make difficult business decisions about where they spend their money to avoid the landmines.
I was recently interviewed about this topic, the media's downward slide and what local media outlets can do about it.
Digital Replaces Traditional
Mistrust in the news media has received a lot of attention in recent weeks. I've written about it too.
What does not get a lot of talk is advertising and why it has changed so much in the last generation.
30-years ago, if companies wanted to advertise, they basically had three choices – newspaper, television or radio.
Today far more money is spent on digital advertising than traditional media. The gap between digital and traditional, or legacy media as some call it, grows every year.
The problem is, most digital advertising money goes to California. It doesn’t stay in the community. Think about a newspaper like the Red Deer Advocate. Since 1996 it’s been owned by Black Press Ltd. of Victoria, BC. When somebody advertises in the paper, part of the money from the advertising goes to people working for the paper in Red Deer and the profit goes to Black Press in Victoria. The money stays in Canada.
Compare that to when a company buys ads on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. All three are based in California. That’s where the advertising dollars go. Very little stays in Canada.
That’s been the biggest problem facing traditional media for decades. Advertising dollars have gone out the door and they’re not coming back.
There are no easy answers to the situation traditional media here, or anywhere else in the world finds itself in. On the surface, it looks like a long painful death.
The Interview
I recently was asked to talk about this in an interview done for AdCanada Media. It specializes in the planning and placement of campaigns in the print media industry and in particular weekly newspapers in western Canada.
Jeff Beardsworth is the CEO of AdCanada Media and he did the interview. Here’s the first portion of that chat and we started by talking about mistrust in the media.
If you would like to watch the full interview, you can check it out here.
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