[url=http://insightfulcanadian.blogspot.com/2009/02/damn-near-perfect-storm.h...DAMN NEAR PERFECT STORM...[/url]
When the stock markets began their downward spirals late last summer, a good friend who's opinion I frequently seek and value reminded me that predictions about market collapse are often "self-fulfilling prophecies".
The bearers of the bad news it seems are now caught-up in the financial storm they may have helped create. Within a wickedly competitive media market, in efforts to outdo each sanguinary headline, the media not only panicked the panicky, but may have panicked their own investors...namely the advertising dollars they count on for survival.
To be fair, the media fed panic is but one of the many reasons for the evaporation of advertising dollars available to conventional newspapers, television and radio. But, it is not because the number of users is going down. Just this past week, the Radio Marketing Bureau reported healthy numbers in Canadian use of the media. Eighty-one percent of us listen to radio every day. Compared to the previous year, the 2008 statistics show that 82% used more (or the same) of radio, 79% of newspapers, and 76% of television. On average, every one of us 33-million Canadians listen to radio or watch TV more than 5 hours a week.
I find it interesting how CanWest so quickly dove toward bankruptcy.
I like to think this is 'karma' for the media giants for buying out all the locals and consolidating into mega-corporations. However, the first ones to suffer from the agony of the dying megas will be the small locals.
I would like to see the demise of these magamediacorps and people take back control of local media.