Google and Facebook look set to control 60 percent of the U.S. digital advertising market this year, maintaining their grip on online revenues publishers desperately need as traditional print sales continue to fall. Media buying agency, Magna Global, forecasts worldwide newspaper ad revenues will drop 9 percent and magazine ad sales 10 percent this year. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times saw print advertising revenues fall 20 percent in 2016 and are offering redundancy deals to staff, while Time Inc., owner of Fortune, People and Sports Illustrated, recently cut 300 jobs and is looking to sell some titles. In Australia, the relentless fall in ad revenue has seen 125 jobs disappear at the Sydney Morning Herald, Age, Financial Review and Fairfax newsrooms in Brisbane and Perth. Up to 100 jobs have also gone at News Corp, with fears of hundreds more on the way. The irony is that the number of people who read titles either in print or online has never been higher, the problem is vanishing revenue -- dollars from print advertising have turned into cents from digital ads. Magan expects global digital ad sales to grow to $299 billion by 2021, making up 50 percent of the market.
