As everywhere else, Europeans are seeking multiple platforms to access news, listen to music and play games. Yet, print remains the main revenue driver for newspaper publishers.

Forecasts suggest that revenues from e-books will soar to nearly 9 per cent in the five largest European markets by 2014 compared to 17 per cent in the US and 8 per cent in Japan.

The European publishing industry is the largest in the world, with the largest sub-sector in terms of number of firms being book publishers (31,813 or 38.1 per cent) and journal and magazine publishers (18,975 or 22.7 per cent). Newspapers publishers represent the smallest sub-sector, with only 9,006 firms in the EU or less than 11 per cent of the total), according to data from the European Commission.

The EU had five companies among the top 15 global media companies in 1988, four in 1998 and only three in 2008.

While overall advertising revenues grew at 37 per cent between 1997 and 2012, newspaper-specific advertising declined by 7.8 per cent. This indicates that the newspaper sector is witnessing a structural decline in advertising income, whereas the decline in TV and Internet advertising is probably a result of shrinking advertising budgets due to the economic crisis. (For more information check http://ec.europa.eu)

Other news in brief

70 per cent of US workforce work from outside the office

A survey of about 1,100 workers in the US and Canada shows that 70 per cent of them work outside of their offices, often from alternate locations. Of those polled, 29 per cent like to use libraries, hotels and restaurants as the workspace, and 28 per cent chose cafeterias, according to the findings by Intelligent Office.

(Source:Mashable)

Ads in the New York Times on the decline

The third-quarter financials of the New York Times show that ad revenues fell by 8.9 per cent although there was a 1 7.4 per cent increase in the circulation. Digital advertising dropped 2.2 per cent and there is no forecast of a turnaround by the end of the year. The stock market responded badly to this metric — despite the 11 per cent increase in subscribers to the New York Times and Herald Tribune, the share fell 22 per cent.

(Source: The Wall and All Things D)

Obama worries about Facebook

In a chat with MTV, the president says Facebook is a bigger threat to his daughter Malia’s privacy than dating. This is despite Facebook spending more time touting its privacy controls recently.

But here’s the news: they’re not good enough for the president. In an interview with MTV on Friday, the president explained that for his daughter Malia, Facebook was not a safe place to hang out.

(Source: Cnet)