The Pew Research Center, an American nonprofit organization that conducts research in the field of social and demographic issues, published the results of an analysis of the news media market in the United States. We publish the translation of the article TechCrunch , which selected the most important from the report.

A recent report from the Pew Research Center shows how successful technology giants like Facebook and Google make money on online advertising, while traditional news media find it hard to find stable funding.
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What is happening with the online advertising market

According to the report, in 2016 the online advertising market, including advertising in social networks, search engines and any other type of advertising on the web, grew by 20% compared to 2015 and reached almost $ 60 billion. The market showed the highest growth over the previous two of the year. At the same time, the media is cutting budgets and cutting jobs .

“Compared with the previous year, an even greater share of the digital advertising market - 65% - was captured by only five technology companies. There are no publishers among them, although some of them - Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Twitter - offer news to users. ”


Companies that in 2014 and in 2015 made the main profits from online advertising

Why profits remain with technology companies

Pew points out that technology companies, such as Facebook and Apple, are not making money from the growing online advertising market.

The irony is that the product of the work of journalists - content - extends and engages consumers on technology platforms that make money from advertising.

Technology companies succeed in the “territory” of publishers due to the fact that their platforms have become the dominant channels of content distribution, taking on the role that newspapers have previously played.

How technology giants affect the publishing business

“The data show that technology companies influence not only the financial side of the news business, they are changing the fundamentals of publishing.”

Speaking about the "points of contact" of technology giants with publishers, Pew notes that the main controls are still in the hands of the news media:

Classical reports and texts are key competencies for the industry, and they remain for publishers (although machines can already be used to produce news). Without these two elements, everything else is not so important - so they are to some extent critical for technology companies. But at the same time - and some non-profit organizations have already encountered this problem - strong texts are worthless without well thought out distribution and setting up content delivery channels. It is less obvious how the relationship between technology companies and publishers will affect the mutual support of industry players, and how market restructuring will affect audience access to information.

The Pew Research Center has studied content distribution strategies for 40 online publications. All of them lead pages in social networks: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. However, only half of them are present in Snapchat. This is by far the youngest platform studied. Some publishers call it "fertile ground for experimentation . "


Static shows which content distribution channels use the 40 studied Rew Internet media.

What will the policy of technology companies lead to?

In the hands of a small group of technology companies, there was an opportunity to influence public opinion through control over the channels of content delivery to the audience. The question arises how they will manage this power. In particular, I recall the recent hype around Facebook, which has an impact on the content in the Trending Topics section.

“Since this state of affairs is consolidated, it is important to keep in mind that the result will not be just someone’s“ victory ”or greater income. This will determine what and through which channels Americans will learn about events in society and the world, ”adds Pew.

Read the full Pew Research Center news media report .

Comment Relap.io

The Pew Research Center study shows that media is not yet able to compete with technology companies in the advertising market. Although publishers want to regain their positions in the advertising market, the lack of cooperation between individual media prevents them from competing with major technology companies.

Google and Facebook dominate the advertising market thanks to big data and clear tools.

Advertisers need targeting, coverage, simple and clear tools and algorithms for creating advertising campaigns in the media. What will publishers do?

Share data

Media will merge and share user data. Every media has knowledge about its readers, but they are not enough to effectively sell and target advertising.

The first step towards unification has already been made by European publishers. 8 of the 10 largest publishing houses in Germany are working to create a single database of their readers. In parallel, user data is joined by The Guardian, CNN, Financial Times, Reuters and The Economist.

Advertising in the media will not be less (perhaps even more), but it will become different

During the period of shortage of money, you can not refuse advertising, and to hang the whole site with cheap banners will not work. Therefore, the media are switching to targeted native fomats. Advertisers are willing to pay for them, and users do not get their eyes from them.

Special projects can immediately attract traffic from third-party sites. Media formats will also become native and will be organically integrated into the content and the tape of the publication.

The media will optimize the circulation of traffic within sites and among themselves.

Media will seek not to release the user from the site or from the partner network. Technologies will be developed that will allow more efficiently to route traffic within their own site and between sites by partners.

This will allow users to be brought to advertising publications and automate traffic exchanges so that each site that comes from outside the user can earn the maximum amount of money.

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