NEW YORK, NY Dec. 29 (DPI) – New York Times media columnist David Carr paints a grim picture of Big Media facing mounting financial pressures in this everything-is-free digital age. And one Big Media outlet most at risk, he writes in yesterday’s Times, is The Times itself.
Carr, a longtime media reporter who survived the latest newsroom cutbacks at the paper this month, reported this weekend on the pressures facing chief executives across the media spectrum, from Hollywood to cable television to mainstream news:
That Carr added his boss, NYT CEO Mark Thompson, to the list of executive on the hot seat in 2015 was almost quaint nod to the old days, when newsrooms were strong and secure enough to write independently about anyone, including one’s own firm. And even in the “old days” very few reporters assessed their firm’s business prospects openly, and certainly not on their own platform.
Carr delivers a single sad paragraph of woe for big media:
Certain new realities are beyond argument: Clutter is up — more ads, more channels, more content — advertising rates continue to drop, and audiences are programming their own universe in text, video and audio. Consumers don’t want to watch commercials, are fleeing networks, hate reruns, are increasingly bored by reality programming, shun print products and, oh, by the way, don’t want to pay much for content either.
No reader comment board was attached to Carr’s Media Equation column Sunday.