What’s Up in Mainstream Media? Nothing!

Chris Anderson is the editor of Wired and publishes a blog called The Long Tail. Today he posted a grim list for Mainstream Media, showing all of the indices that are down and the ones that are up.

Down:
Box Office: down by 7% this year (tickets per capita have fallen every year since 2001).

Newspapers: circulation, which peaked in 1987, is declining faster than ever and is down another 2.6% so far this year.

Music: Sales are down another 5.7% this year; although digital downloads (still just 6% of the business) are climbing nicely.

Radio: down 4% this year alone, continuing a multi-decade decline.

Books: down by 7% in 2004

Mixed:
DVDs: sales growth is slowing dramatically, from 29% last year to single digits this year.

TV: Total viewership is still rising, but as channels proliferate and the audience fragments the rating of the average show continues to decline.

Magazines: Ad revenues are up a bit although the number of ad pages is flat (they’re charging more per page). Circulation is also flat, while newsstand sales are at an all-time low.

Videogames: it’s the final few months of the current generation of consoles, which tends to the trough of the buying cycle. Sales were down 20% in Sept, but will probably pick up by Christmas with the launch of the Xbox 360.

Up:
Internet advertising:
–Banners: Up 10% this year
–Keywords: Google revenues up 96%