http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wanamaker
John Wanamaker (July 11, 1838 – December 12, 1922) was a United States merchant, religious leader, civic and political figure, considered by some to be the father of modern advertising and a “pioneer in marketing.”
Popular saying illustrating how difficult it was to reach potential customers using traditional advertising is attributed to John Wanamaker: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
The truth is that at least 99 percent of the money spent on mass marketing is wasted. That's why it's rapidly disappearing for everything except: (1) saturation advertising [i.e. building and maintaining a widely recognized brand name such as a soft drink, beer, auto company, insurance company, etc.], and (2) reaching audiences otherwise unreachable by target marketing [e.g. if you have asbestosis, then contact this nice lawyer], and (3) directing uninformed individuals toward a targeted marketing source [e.g. we're a pill company who have an expensive wonder drug that you should try to convince your doctor to proscribe ... see our ad in Health News Magazine].
And that's why our newser friends are going broke. Money spent with them is largely wasted in most cases, more effective alternatives abound, and they are killing off their mass audiences.