The media industry is a sector that is currently under fire. Already plagued before the crisis by decreasing advertising income and dropping sales and subscription figures, the sector is seeing more and more troubles to come everyday. In an earlier post and discussion I have argued that the business model of media and entertainment will be turned upside down. By this I meant that the advertiser will be more interested in placing its message within the content instead of advertising on a specific medium or platform, related to the fact that content will be less and less exclusive to a specific medium. Examples like Ugly Betty and Sophia’s Diary are marking this shift in the media landscape and its cash flow I think.

With the media sector in crisis we will see companies taking all kinds of measures to survive this difficult time. One of the things that will cut costs is letting go of personnel. Following the logic as described above, this strategy might be a possibility for media companies to prepare themselves for the future also, to loose ballast and hold on to the ‘assets’ that will enable them to take advantage of the opportunities that will be awaiting further on the road. A simple conclusion to be drawn from my earlier analysis would be to loose a large share of the advertising sales department and reorganize the organisation to one that is orientated on generating revenues on the consumer side of business, possibly by replacing the sales department with a design department. But maybe you don’t agree with my analysis, so I want to ask you, where and how would you cut costs in a media company?