The Contemporary Print Media Industry

Running head: THE CONTEMPORARY PRINT MEDIA INDUSTRY
THE CONTEMPORARY PRINT MEDIA INDUSTRY
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1THE CONTEMPORARY PRINT MEDIA INDUSTRY
The essay is focused towards understanding the present conditions of the print media in
Canada and the world and gathering implications from the same to comment on the future
prospects of the industry. The study considers the present growth rate of the magazine
publication in the country and across the world. The same information is used to understand the
prospects of magazines in the future. In the recent years the importance that was once associated
with the print media has greatly diminished. The print media business has witnessed a steady
drop over the last few years. It is important to understand that the growth of website news portals
and the advent of quick and easy access news in the smartphone era has contributed to the
growth of the e-magazines. This has greatly hampered the growth of print magazines in the
market. Magazines of all genres can be said to have taken a hit as a result.
According to news sources Canada can witness a 1.6% reduction in the advertisement
spend in magazines in the year 2019 (Canadian magazines to see the steepest drop: report, 2019).
At the same time the online advertising is set to rise by almost 9%. This proves that currently the
value of magazines in the country as well as the world is witnessing a slow disintegration. In
fact, this has been the case if the larger part of the 21st Century is considered. Especially, since
the 2010s the increase in internet literacy and better internet penetration across the world
contributed greatly to the gradual and steady growth of online news portals. Likewise, e-
magazines also grew in popularity across the world. The rise have been even more aggressive in
the past four or five years. In Canada, there has been significant layoffs taking place in a number
of magazines. The magazine publishers like Rogers Media and TVA had reduced their
employees (Canadian magazines to see the steepest drop: report, 2019). It can be seen that apart
from the rise of the internet magazines another significant factor that is affecting the drop in
magazines is the cost of running the operations. At the same time e-magazines can be run at half

2THE CONTEMPORARY PRINT MEDIA INDUSTRY
the cost or even lower. This is also the reason many large magazines have shifted completely
towards online channels. Hence, magazines are becoming more and more internet oriented. The
cost of running large print media houses can definitely be said to be taking its toll on the
magazine industry. Many experts in the market are skeptical about the future of the print media.
This along with magazines include newspapers, periodicals and articles. Many are speaking in
favor of the print media including print magazines. The arguments in favor of the magazines is
that they are generally more tangible than the e-magazines that are available. They can be easily
accessed without anyone having to have an internet connection and they have more glamour
value. However, it also needs to be said that at the same time the importance of printed versions
of magazines are diminishing both for the reader and the publishers.
Cassidy Lunney opines in The Future of Print Magazines (2019) that most of the
publications of magazines are going to make a quick shift to online. Speaking about magazines
she says that The New York Times, Vogue, National Geographic and Harper’s Bazaar will be
some of the bigger names to make the media shift. However, on the bright side experts predict
that there is still hopes for the print magazines as trends tend to stop and people tend to repeat
theie historic habits. It can hence be said that magazines may regain much of their lost readership
in the long run. The 21st century has been innovative, revolutionary and greatly spontaneous in
terms if the changes that have taken place. It has witnessed the rise of the internet and the
disintegration of the previously existing systems (Patterson, 2016). The rise of internet
journalism and the boom in the available media channels across the globe have contributed
massively to the growth of the online culture. People tend to be more online with better more
affordable network packages provides by the internet service providers. The emergence of the
smartphones in the recent years have been one of the most important factors that have affected