Most newspapers continue to be profitable, despite the issues that you read about. The question many may be asking today is how long can they hold on? PriceWaterhouseCoopers has issued its Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2009-2013 and predicts an advertising turnaround in 2011 for the publishing industry. Even then it is not good news. Writing in his Paid Content blog, Rafat Ali quoted the following from the forecast:

• Four segments - recorded music, B2B publishing, newspapers, and consumer magazines - will suffer actual declines in total global revenues during 2009-2013 as a whole, in stark contrast to CAGR in excess of 6 percent in Internet access, Internet advertising, video games, and TV subscriptions and license fees, and of 4 percent in filmed entertainment, which will become an increasingly digitally-driven segment.


• Advertising revenues as a whole are facing a period of broad decline over the coming five years, with global advertising spend across all media projected to be still below its 2008 level in 2013. This means a "profound structural shift during the five years towards more targeted and cost-effective ad models enabled by digital. This in turn may result in a permanent reduction in total advertising spend, as dollars formerly 'wasted' through inaccurate targeting are saved and reallocated to other priorities," says the report.