Reading Picard's chapters, I kinda agree with Kate and Sandra that I'm glad that I am not doing either financing or advertise-marketing for news media. I think there has been a traditional barrier between newsroom and financing-advertising departments within media. I really think they are a bad combination. I came close to being one of the mixture. The newspaper I worked for in Korea made me meet finance and advertising guys every morning, to find out what newsroom can do to help them on daily basis. I was relieved of the post after a few months, because their demand was mostly unacceptable and all I did was to say uh-uh and no-no.
According to Picard, shares in media companies are categorized as cyclical in stock market, not recession resistent (178). What I have learned in the brief experience is that we are so dependent on advertise revenues and how much vulnerable that makes us. As the business got worse, dependence on advertisement got even steeper. What was surprising is that only a few decades ago, the portion of advertisement in the total revenue was around 50%, now over 80, closing to 90%.
The new business model that media companies are seeking for, whether they intended or not, seems to be heading toward the departure from this dependence. Paid online content, micropayment ideas or hybrid model of WSJ, they all seem to me as media returning to subscription revenues. Should I say, the Penny press revisited?
Some questions are raised, can the ratio of advertisement against the total revenue considered as an indicator of financial health? Or is it just the indicator of a healthy journalism.
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