Looking at the Big Picture: Issues impacting on the business of media.

“Quite often I can be in a bookshop, standing beneath a great big picture of myself and paying for a book with a credit card clearly marked John Grisham, yet no one recognises me. I often say I'm a famous author in a country where no one reads”.

      (John Grisham)                                                                                

The media industry has always in one way or the other had its challenges. These challenges range from political, economic, and social to technological. Some industries in the media business seem to flourish as technology advances and the society changes. On the other hand, some are failing. This blog post throws more light on key issues in the media industry.

Book titles published by new or unpopular authors in the UK often find it difficult on the market. Brand-names and best sellers seem to appeal more to the public than books written by unpopular authors. This issue cuts across most media industries. A similar case in the film industry is the dependence on a few number of stars thought to be vital to the industry’s success. It becomes a struggle for films produced with unpopular characters to make it on the market[1]. In the newspaper industry, the customer and product relationship is often measured by strong brand loyalty which offers a foundation for the customer to remain committed to its purchase, hence, posing a challenge to entry for new companies.

In Ghana, the Daily Graphic newspaper for example, was the first newspaper published. It gained great popularity that subsequent newspapers produced suffered initially on the market. 

Another challenge is the introduction of new technologies which tend to compete with the older ones. This can be seen in the film and music industry where the technology of CDs and DVDs are gradually giving way to iTunes and internet downloads[2]. With internet download comes the issue of piracy. Also, the establishment of more broadcasting stations, both television and radio has increased competition between stations, leading to decreasing income of some companies. A more current and familiar example is the introduction of eBooks.

The book market in the UK rose to more than £50 billion in 2007. The whole market has shrunk since then and is expected to slip to about £40 billion in 2015. This was due to factors including the increased patronage of digital media such as eBooks. On the contrary, in Ghana, though technology is gradually picking up, the sale of printed books has risen. On the 2012 digital Hot spots map, Ghana was among the “coolest” countries with more than 75% of its population using mobile phones. Less than 40% have access to the internet[3].

All these issues mentioned above call for entrepreneurs to come up with innovative ideas to keep the media business running. If not, more challenges may arise.

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[1]Kung, L (2008) ‘Part 1: Strategic Content’ in Strategic Management in the Media: theory and practice. London: Sage, pp 73.

[2] Walli, S. (2010) “The Future of Book Publishing Business Models,“ Once More unto the Breach, 8 March 2010: http://stephesblog.blogs.com/my_weblog/2010/03/the-future-of-book-publishing-business-models.html   [accessed 02/10/13]

[3] Stone, M., Nel, F., McBride, L. and Lin, E. (2012) World News Future and Change study 2010. Chicago: World News Media Networking (WNMN0), pp 52.