Traditional media still alive...for now.

The death of traditional media has been exaggerated, according to global leader for entertainment and media practice at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong.

Speaking at the World Association of Newspapers readership conference, Marcel Fenez said that although digital advertising will continue to soar over the next five years it will still only globally represent 10 per cent of total advertising for newspapers by 2012.

He forecast that global print advertising will grow 1.8 percent to $123.3 billion in 2012, while global digital advertising will grow 19.3 percent to $13.4 billion.

He said: "One of the things we need to get into context here is that traditional media isn't dead yet and won't be for the next five years."

"It's very important to think why. The over-50s are helping to sustain traditional media, and also in many of the emerging markets there is still plenty of room for traditional media. The death of traditional media is exaggerated, at least in a five-year context."

Total lobal newspaper advertising will grow 2.9 percent to $136.8 billion in 2012, with digital advertising accounting for 43 percent of the growth, according to Fenez.

Talking about the current economic climate Fenez said that advertisers will take a "wait and see" attitude and be cautious about spending in the first half of 2009. "They won't do anything until mid-year. If they have the revenue, they'll release their budgets."

Research by PriceWaterhouseCoopers showed that media executives were 25 per cent more likely to collaborate than any other industry, which Fenez said was important, especially in a recession.

"We're realising that to win you don't need to rip the other guys eyes out," he said.

Fenez used the example of News Corp and NBC Universal which this year launched a new shared online video distribution network.

"Collaboration is really important, especially at time when finance is tough. You are going to be looking at ways you can collaborate. Then you can all win," said Fenez.

"Think about who to partner with, is it a brand or a distributor, who could you partner with to develop an innovative distribution? I think that's extremely important for all the sectors in the media industry."