Recession Could Bring More Mags, Enrich Search

In a survey of industry experts on the effects of the expected recession on media industries, our own partner Samir “Mr. Magazine” Husni of University of Mississippi tells Mediapost not to be too surprised if new print books emerge. Fortune, Esquire and Entertainment Weekly all grew out of hard times, when a soft ad market lowered the barriers for entry. The Internet will continue to prosper, maybe more so, because frugal media buyers will be looking for digital’s more precise targeting and ROI. Low-cost social networking and word-of-mouth techniques online may see some of the best benefit from a downturn, some media mavens predict. But the rich will get richer, Forrester predicts. Cost-per-action media like search is bound to look even better under tighter budgets.