10 Fastest Dying Industries

Posted on 4/6/2011 by Jim Pickerell | Printable Version | Comments (1)

In an IBISWorld market research report author Toon Van Beeck has identified the 10 Fasted Dying Industries in the United States. While every industry has a lifecycle – growth, maturity and decline – the fastest dying “standouts” include: Photofinishing, #4 on the list, Newspaper Publishing ,#7 and Video Postproduction, #10. IBIS has a database of 700 industries and studied 200 that were in decline to determine which were in the worst shape.

Newspaper Publishing

In newspaper publishing revenue in 2010 was $40.726 billion, but had declined 35.9 percent from 2000 to 2010 and is projected to decline another 18.8 percent by 2016. Between 2010 and 2016  it is projected that 1,078 establishments will close.



American newspapers took a huge hit in 2009 with 23 of the top 25 posting circulation declines. All but the Wall Street Journal posted declines. While the Denver Post also posted a gain, their gain resulted from the company adding all the Rocky Mountain News subscribers when that paper was closed.

Advertising dollars have shifted dramatically away from newspaper publishers and toward the web, which has greatly reduced revenue streams. It is now possible to deliver information in ways that make the old model almost impossible to maintain. The problem with most publishers is that they confuse the delivery mechanism (the physical publishing) with why they actually exist.
 


Ironically, most of us consume more news and content than ever before; we just get it in different ways and places from different people. While part of the industry may have benefited from the move from paper to electronic delivery the overall paper based business model is struggling to survive and no one has come up with a viable alternative business model .
 
Photofinishing

Photo finishing was a $1.603 billion market in 2010. It declined 69.1 percent between 2000 and 2010 and is projected to decline another 39.1 percent by 2016 with 2359 establishment projected to close between 2010 and 2016. Over the last ten years almost 60 percent of Photofinishers have closed spelling tough times for previous industry leaders Kodak and Fuji Film.



Video Postproduction


Video Postproduction was a $4.276 billion business in 2010 down 24.9 percent from where it was in 2000 and it is expected to decline another 10.7 percent by 2016. In 2010 there were 1,789 establishment and 676 of those are expected to close by 2016. Technological advances, particularly involving the widespread adoption of digital media, have adversely affected the industry’s range of services, from editing and animation to archiving and format transfer. While the use of this technology is becoming widespread, it is undercutting the industry’s services since production companies can now do much of the work in-house.

Information Sector

The information sector is characterized by rapid technological change. Most of the 29 industry reports covered by IBISWorld within the Information sector are in decline, largely because of rapid technological change.

Of course there are exceptions to this trend, including software publishing, VoIP, internet service providers and search engines (which are some of the innovators behind this change). Still, other than those technologically advanced industries, most have very difficult operating conditions. The Wired Telecommunication Carriers, Newspaper Publishing and Video Postproduction Services industries are suffering the most.

Of the 10 chosen industries that are dying, Wired Telecommunication Carriers is by far the largest, at $154.0 billion in turnover. While this number may sound sizeable, it’s considerably smaller than the $341.8 billion at the end of 2000. Since then, this industry has declined in every year, and it is now close to 55 percent smaller than it was at its peak; with an additional decline of 37.1 percent expected in the next six years. While major players like AT&T and Verizon continue to dominate the industry, they are generating lower returns each year as consumers switch to VoIP and wireless products.
 
While none of these lines of business are expected to totally disappear, at the moment the future for people engaged in these industries is not bright.


Copyright © 2011 Jim Pickerell. The above article may not be copied, reproduced, excerpted or distributed in any manner without written permission from the author. All requests should be submitted to Selling Stock at 10319 Westlake Drive, Suite 162, Bethesda, MD 20817, phone 301-461-7627, e-mail: jim@scphotos.com

Jim Pickerell is founder of www.selling-stock.com, an online newsletter that publishes daily. He is also available for personal telephone consultations on pricing and other matters related to stock photography. He occasionally acts as an expert witness on matters related to stock photography. For his current curriculum vitae go to: http://www.jimpickerell.com/Curriculum-Vitae.aspx.  

Comments

  • Peter Dazeley Posted May 27, 2011
    what are the other 6 industries that are dying?

Post Comment

Please log in or create an account to post comments.

Stay Connected

Sign up to receive email notification when new stories are posted.

Follow Us

Free Stuff

Stock Photo Pricing: The Future
In the last two years I have written a lot about stock photo pricing and its downward slide. If you have time over the holidays you may want to review some of these stories as you plan your strategy ...
Read More
Future Of Stock Photography
If you’re a photographer that counts on the licensing of stock images to provide a portion of your annual income the following are a few stories you should read. In the past decade stock photography ...
Read More
Blockchain Stories
The opening session at this year’s CEPIC Congress in Berlin on May 30, 2018 is entitled “Can Blockchain be applied to the Photo Industry?” For those who would like to know more about the existing blo...
Read More
2017 Stories Worth Reviewing
The following are links to some 2017 and early 2018 stories that might be worth reviewing as we move into the new year.
Read More
Stories Related To Stock Photo Pricing
The following are links to stories that deal with stock photo pricing trends. Probably the biggest problem the industry has faced in recent years has been the steady decline in prices for the use of ...
Read More
Stock Photo Prices: The Future
This story is FREE. Feel free to pass it along to anyone interested in licensing their work as stock photography. On October 23rd at the DMLA 2017 Conference in New York there will be a panel discuss...
Read More
Important Stock Photo Industry Issues
Here are links to recent stories that deal with three major issues for the stock photo industry – Revenue Growth Potential, Setting Bottom Line On Pricing and Future Production Sources.
Read More
Recent Stories – Summer 2016
If you’ve been shooting all summer and haven’t had time to keep up with your reading here are links to a few stories you might want to check out as we move into the fall. To begin, be sure to complet...
Read More
Corbis Acquisition by VCG/Getty Images
This story provides links to several stories that relate to the Visual China Group (VCG) acquisition of Corbis and the role Getty Images has been assigned in the transfer of Corbis assets to the Gett...
Read More
Finding The Right Image
Many think search will be solved with better Metadata. While metadata is important, there are limits to how far it can take the customer toward finding the right piece of content. This story provides...
Read More

More from Free Stuff