Statistical, Ecosystems and Competitiveness Analysis of the Media and Content Industries: The Newspaper Publishing Industry

Statistical, Ecosystems and Competitiveness Analysis of the Media and Content Industries 
2
 
This represented a significant departure from tradition, in that it brought together 
industries, previously seen as belonging to very diverse sectors of the economy, in an 
attempt to better reflect current reality. During the last decade, the industrial environment 
related to activities such as information archiving, processing or transmission, content 
creation and exchange, etc. has undergone a series of changes, which make it less and 
less advisable to analyse the sector, or any of its industries or companies, as a 
autonomous and separate entity that would simply integrate new technologies for the 
purposes of straightforward modernisation or expansion. Borders have blurred, roles 
have changed, and business models have adapted: the ecosystems have evolved radically. 
2. To offer an industrial and economic analysis of the Media and Content Industries, and 
their dynamics. The case studies investigate the past and current ecosystems of these 
industries, looking beyond value chains or major actors to those aspects that are relevant 
to the understanding of the transformations themselves: emerging challengers, past and 
new threats and ways of responding, new business models, major investments, major 
failures or successes and their causes, technological changes affecting the industry, 
radical innovations if any, etc.
The analysis in the cinema, music and newspaper case studies follows the framework 
sketched out by IBBT-SMIT and TNO (2011) in collaboration with IPTS. They consider the 
interplay between:
 Technological change and innovation, especially ICT and digitisation, as a major driver of 
industrial and economic change; 
 Market developments; 
 Industrial structural change, including analyses of concentration and consolidation, 
integration, diversification and new entries; 
 The competitive position of European industry players in a European and global context; 
 Impact of digitisation in different parts of the value network (production, aggregation, 
distribution, consumption of content), new business models, new positions in the value 
chain, piracy and the role of users; 
 The role of policy, i.e. not a full analysis of policy impact on the subsectors, but the main 
policy issues and trends as important contextual factors. 
In the video games, TV and book publishing industry case studies, the framework presents a 
slightly different pattern, but aims to achieve similar objectives through its analysis. 
The video games report documented a series of core insights into the video games industry 
that allow us to understand the market, its industrial structure including the main actors and 
activities, the aspects that determine the major tensions and power relations among actors, and 
also the potential disruptions. 
The TV case study follows the same track but explores the relationships between these 
changes and new TV formats. It adopts a "product" approach to the analysis of the industry, 
giving special consideration to how European television series, game shows and sports are 
being produced, distributed and viewed/consumed in the new media ecosystem.
Similarly, the book publishing report considers the redistribution of the components of the 
book "chain" and the shifting role of various industry players with the development of e-
books.

---