Yesterday I tweeted out this fascinating chart about what has happened to newspaper advertising revenues:
The chart comes from this blog post by a professor named Mark Perry. In the comments to the post there is a brief discussion that points to the shift away in classifieds to Craigslist and other outlets as a primary reason.
I went to be shortly after tweeting that and couldn’t help but think about which industries are up next for that level of disruption. I believe a chart showing textbook revenues might wind up looking not all that dissimilar. I also believe that TV advertising revenues are probably going to decline meaningfully as that advertising gets switched to online video.
There are two mechanisms at work that are likely to produce similar charts for many more industries to come that are illustrated by these previous two examples. First, a shift from offline to online and second a replacement of paid by free. Together these form an incredible one-two punch and managers in many existing businesses would do well to print out the above chart and put it in front of them on their desks as a potent reminder of what is coming.
