“Although new distributors of information and entertainment abound and video on demand and consumer-created content are increasing daily, consumers’ greatest time allocation and advertisers’ greatest expenditures remain with traditional media. Although young people have adopted newer media technologies more rapidly than other population groups, most of their media use still involves film, television, magazines, and non-traditional newspapers,” writes Picard, also Hamrin Professor of Media Economics and director of the Media Management and Transformation Centre, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, Sweden.

“If the death knell for traditional media is not ringing, why do industry personnel keep hearing bells in their ears?”

Picard states that he believes that most people don't understand the changes going on in the media industry, and that lack of understanding scares them.

But these changes didn't happen overnight. Picard points out that although U.S. newspaper circulation rose throughout the 20th Century, penetration has slid steadily between 1 or 2 percent each year since 1950. That pace has been constant, while additional media types have appeared on the scene. The competition, financial losses and company failures have been growing over the past 30 years, and although they were compounded by the arrival of the Internet and mobile, they were not caused by the Internet and mobile.

“The expansion of network television didn’t increase the loss, the arrival of cable channels didn’t amplify the decline, and the arrival of the Internet didn’t boost the pace,” he states. “Overall, the business has stopped growing and investors are unhappy, but the industry isn't dying.”

Changes happening to newspapers, although painful, are not the biggest challenges they face.

“The biggest challenges facing people in traditional media today are pessimism and lack of vision,” Picard writes. “That negativism makes things worse internally, reduces confidence of advertisers and investors, and makes it difficult to think about trying new things or even trying old things in new ways. The first step out of this condition is to stop lamenting the passing of the past. Things will never be the way they were. So get over it. Move on.”

To view Picard's full blog item, visit his Media Business Web site.