SAVE OUR PRINT MEDIA
March 30th, 2017
Working in the written word is hard whatever way you look at it right now. When it comes to PR, Word finds itself being constantly bombarded by requests to buy advertising space in return for client coverage. A great story just doesn’t seem to be enough anymore. And we are saddened to hear that fellow journalists are being laid off by the truck load. In the last year alone we have seen the demise of 7 Days, and other publishing houses have downsized, reorganised or have put their journalists out to graze (aka as struggling to freelance).
It’s no surprise. The print media industry in the region is struggling and trying to ramp up its lifeline of paid advertising, subscriptions and such like. This is a hard task when ad spend is unilaterally down (forecast to fall by 7.3% in MENA this year alone). But let’s face it, digital media is making a thumping large dent that print publishers simply can’t ignore. It can’t be denied that print circulation has been in decline because many marketeers see New Media as the more cost effective, targeted way forward.
All taken into account, when all’s said and done, at the end of the day… print magazines and newspapers must, and should survive in the region. There can never be a substitute for rich insightful print journalism which reports reliably, credibly and creatively. Call us old school, but Word believes that traditional and new media can exist in harmony.
