From “the end of advertising as we know it” to “beyond content”? Changes in advertising and the impact on journalistic media

Abstract

The advertising industry and the media industry have long been tied together to reach their main objectives. The advertising industry used media as ad vehicles to embed and transport their ad messages and the media needed advertising
money to finance and subsidize their activities. Additionally the advertising income of media outlets depends on economic changes – be they cyclical or structural. Journalistic media seem to be more affected by cyclical downturns than other media types, and they seem to be at least as much affected by structural changes than other media. Structural changes in advertising as well as the possibility to combine advertising in new ways, lead to a loss of advertising money for journalistic media. While advertising money is still important in the financing of journalistic media, at the moment the future of this funding source is unclear. Most likely, advertising revenue will not be large enough to finance newsrooms that are designed to make important contributions to democratic societies.