And So it Came to Pass

A report from Mediapost in the US entitled Online Job Ad Revenues Surpass Print brings some more gloomy news to the newspaper industry. Why? Advertising online outpaced print by the tune of $5.9 billion to $5.4 billion in 2006.

In the glut of stats which come out of the internet industry this is a hugely significant landmark in the inexorable migration of spend from print to online. Yes, i know the US is different from the UK but lets try and put that into a domestic context.
- total UK job ad revenues worth £1.6 billion (dependent on source this figure could be 10% lower/higher)
- online job ad revenues worth £300 million
- that would mean a reduction of £500 million in print over next x? years and similar rise in online
- is it more realistic to suppose a £650 million drop in print - as total expenditure declines?
- what does "x years" equate to?

and here is a very interesting quote from report (thanks to Joel Cheeseman here)

   "Much of the online growth is expected to come from small and medium-sized businesses posting local ads for hourly and part-time workers. Already, two-thirds of online job revenues are generated by niche boards or regional Web sites focusing on specific categories such as nursing, technology or food services. Rivals Monster and CareerBuilder, respectively, control 14% and 12% of the online job market, while newspapers not affiliated with either job site claim 8%".

Would estimate that UK market is more dominated by the generalists than these ratios indicate from US.

I guess we all just need reminding that even though we are 10 years into this industry it is still early days in terms of hard cash.