Internet rules - newspapers lose

This is interesting - just yesterday did I have a write-up about the changing habits of Internet users and their media usage, but it was very much related to China, which might be a somewhat special case, as outlined.

Now, the trend has been confirmed in Korea as well - where the Internet rules, traditional newspaper loses out.

"Readers, who once leafed through morning newspapers, now prefer to click on to major portals like www.naver.com, www.yahoo.co.kr or www.daum.net, where they can peruse articles from dozens of newspapers listed under these portal sites."

The impact is dramatic. "Newspapers have lost both subscription and advertising revenues. Subscriptions fell from 57 percent of South Koreans aged between 15 to 60 during 2000 to 41 percent last year. The ads spent on the country's 140 newspapers fell 7.7 percent."

So, traditional media, the question is - what do you do to ride the train? Because, locking up the contents behind a Walled Garden is only a short-term solution, probably hurting longterm, considering the variety of free online material available.

(By Asia Business Consulting)