Period of effortless profits

I found professor Robert G. Picard’s latest post in his blog The Media Business very interesting. Mr. Picard argues that recession of traditional media is actually not a new sudden thing but a result of process that has lasted for decades. He underlines that we are in an era where new competition has ended a long period of undemanding operating conditions and has removed effortless profits that traditional commercial media enjoyed for a half century.

I find the post as a good analysis why many established publishers are having a hard headache these days. It is also very good reminder that we can be blind to incremental market change especially when we’re almost too profitable. I think that most of the companies have performed in depth market analysis according to Michael E. Porter’s model without finding anything really alerting changes in the operating environment. It is just very difficult to notice the change when everything is seemingly going well.

Mr. Picard concludes the post saying: Things will never be the way they were. So get over it. Move on. Discover and embrace new ways of operating and new opportunities to prosper and grow.

The whole post can be read here.