Why should print media be part of your media strategy?
There’s no doubt that the world in 2011 is defined by information. Whether it’s news, opinions, interviews or advertising, it’s information that provides the direction and structure to our lives. Print media, television, online, mobile and social media are all now vital components of any campaign. Read more
Consumer magazine publishers still generate a massive 78% of their total revenues from their print products, according the fourth annual Publishing Futures report.
The survey of senior magazine executives predicts the figure will fall to 71% over the next two years, while income from the publishers’ digital brands will rise from 8% to represent 15% of total revenue during the same period.
By comparison, the survey found B2B publishers make only 40% of their revenue from print products, partly due to their increased focus on brand extensions through events.
The Publishing Futures report launched at today’s Professional Publishers Association’s Publishing+ conference at the Hilton London Metropole. It predicts that advertising and sponsorship will retain a stable share of publisher’s total revenues over the next two years, declining slightly from the current 36% of total revenues to 35% by 2014.
Digital will play a greater role in magazine ad revenues, growing its share from 17% to 27% in the next two years. The report also found that multi-channel advertising packages were increasingly leading to sponsorship deals rather than traditional advertising positioning.
The economic climate is causing continued challenges to publishers, the survey found, hitting advertising budgets and circulation and putting pressure on rates. Publishers also felt threatened by advertisers speaking more directly with their customers using information from their own databases.
The report added that B2B publishers were ahead of their consumer colleagues in terms of re-engineering their businesses to adapt to digital opportunities. It stated: "The change and volatility in consumer consumption patterns is still causing massive turbulence.
"There is a clear concern among a number of smaller publishers, especially in B2B, that they do not have the scale and resource to prosper in the austere and challenging environment."
But the study also found that the economic hardship has become "an accepted fact" for many publishers who are now "getting on with managing the challenges", looking for opportunities in overseas markets and emphasising revenue growth.
The PPA carried out the survey in association with Wessenden Marketing and InPublishing.
This article, written by Louise Ridley, originally appeared on the MediaWeek website. http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/bulletin/mediaam/article/1181453/?DCMP=EMC-CONMediaAMBulletin
The latest figures from the South African Audience Research Foundation (SAARF) show that daily and weekly newspapers account for 49% of local media consumption, making them still the most preferred source of news and information in the country. This is a far-cry from the predictions of doom that newspapers would have been dead a decade ago. In fact, there is evidence globally that newspapers have arrested their decline, which was largely caused by the rapid advancement and wide availability of the internet; which led to the provision of free news online.
Newspapers are enjoying new-found stability. Even more pleasing is evidence that they are growing in popularity in most of the developing world, including populous India. Locally, the acquisition of Independent Newspapers & Media SA (INMSA), by a consortium led by Sekunjalo Holdings for R2 billion, points to the continued attractiveness of newspaper and magazine companies to investors. Also, the continuing growth of isiZulu language newspapers shows that those who wrote the obituary of newspapers and magazines have acted too hastily.
Now that the apocalyptic prophesies appear to have been off the mark, it is about time we changed the narrative about the print media. This is not an industry on death row but a dynamic one that is doing its best, and succeeding by continually innovating and embracing change. Admittedly, these changes, especially the swift emergence of online media, have changed the way newspaper and magazine owners do business.
They have successfully leveraged synergies between the print and online versions of newspapers and magazines. Newspaper companies have invested princely sums in recent times to adapt and ensure they stay relevant. They had no option if they were to continue doing what they have always done well - that is to be the most trusted platforms for news and for delivering desirable audiences to advertisers.
Newspapers have a special significance in South Africa. They enjoy public trust that far exceeds that of other media platforms by far. This, combined with their historical watchdog role, makes them a vital part of society. People trust newspapers because they largely owe their mere existence to the promotion of public good. This notwithstanding, newspapers are indeed going through the most challenging period since they were first published centuries ago. But, they are doing a good job of changing with the times. All mainstream newspapers in South Africa have fully embraced the digital medium and are reaping the rewards in terms of attracting new readers. Far from being the killer of newspapers that it was supposed to be, the digital platform has seen newspapers and magazines gain new audiences.
The challenge local newspapers and magazines face, like their counterparts around the world, is how they can best monetise their journalism online and attract sufficient advertising to make their online offering viable. More and more pay walls are coming up as media houses try to recoup the costs of providing news online and profit from it.
The good news is that people have shown a willingness to pay for quality journalism. As Lizette Rabie, a professor of journalism at Stellenbosch says, people are willing to pay for news that they cannot get for free - just as they are willing to pay for satellite television. She also points out that people do not read news either digitally or in print to the exclusion of the other; but consume both media forms. And, importantly, newspaper readership has remained stable in South Africa, at 49% of all media consumption, representing 17. 1 million people out of a population of just over 50 million. What this tells us at Print and Digital Media South Africa (PDMSA) is that print media, specifically newspapers and magazines, are going to be with us for a very long time, perhaps at least another generation.
As for magazine, it's something of a happy coincidence that the news of a drop in readership during the period under review, from 50, 5% to 46, 9%, comes at the same time as we celebrate the entry of yet another new title, Business Class, from the Times Media stable. Watch this space.
This article, written by Ingrid Louw, originally appeared on the Bizcommunity website. http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/15/92694.html
Consumers are abandoning print newspapers for tablet editions and reading on their smartphones, but there hasn't been a mass shift to reading magazines on the devices - yet.
That's the message from the Newspapers and Magazines section of Deloitte's 2013 Consumer Media Survey, which contains a wealth of stats on consumer attitudes to media. Newspapers
-- Print plummets: 39 percent of newspaper reading respondents said print was their favourite format for reading their chosen titles, down massively from 75 percent just a year ago. It's difficult not to make a connection between that fall and the rapid adoption of tablet PCs over the same period.
-- But digital soars: Laptops and desktops still account for most news consumption online, but mobile is gaining. Of smartphone users, 32 percent say they use their device to read news articles every day or at least once a week, and that figure rises to more than half for tablet owners.
However, Deloitte says there is still a fondness for sitting down with print Sunday editions. Below are preferred formats broken down by age group.
It's clear tablets and smartphones are having a big impact on how users access news content, but will it save newspapers? The report gives a very equivocal answer:
"There is limited data on whether the cost of investment required to compete online is justified by the revenue it will generate.
"It is early days for this medium, so the challenge now is how to deliver news to younger, multi-platform audience without alienating their loyal older customers."Magazines
In contrast, the transition to digital is happening far slower for magazines,
-- Print preference: 75 percent still said they prefer to read magazines in print, down significantly, but not hugely, from 88 percent a year ago.
-- Digital doubts: Just 18 percent of tablet owners and 8 percent of smartphone owners said they used their device to access magazine content daily or at least once a week.
Deloitte says the lack of take up of magazines on tablets, a format they are seemingly well suited to, could be due to less takeup of tablets among magazine readers, or the a lack of optimisation of magazine content for the devices.
Of course that would be fine if it weren't for the fact print circulation is declining fast.
Within the magazine sector, Deloitte points out that Womens titles have been the slowest to move to digital formats, while cooking and technology titles have been faster. Considering the closure of more! this week and the overall decline of the Womens's market - perhaps that's a mistake.
Deloitte's survey throws up one point which disagrees with our more! analysis - it says half of respondents said availability of gossip sites did not affect their propensity to buy a women's magazine, suggesting instead that people are dropping magazines as an unneccesary luxury during the recession.
Here's different magazine categories broken down by online and print reading.
Subscriptions
The big issue for magazines (and newspapers) is generating recurring revenue - and that means subscriptions.
According to Deloitte, 27 percent of respondents say they subscribe to a print magazine, down 10 percentage points on 2011.
-- Maybe...: As Deloitte says, there is still "some cause for optimism", as digital subscriptions have jumped to 10 percent and tablets, where consumers show a greater likelihood to pay for content, are now "the de facto home" of digital magazines with 40 percent of people reading them on the devices.
-- Or maybe not: About a fifth of respondents had downloaded a magazine app, but only a quarter of those had bought any content through it. In addition, nearly half of those accessing free content via a PC said it meant they didn't need to buy the print version.
It seems the jury's out on whether tablets and subscriptions will save the magazine industry, but it's worth noting that both free consumption of content and the failure to convince those who've downladed apps to buy content are factors magazines can probably influence.
The report is cautiously optimistic about their prospects: "If magazine publishers can afford to invest in digital publishing whilst suffering a fall in their print circulation, this could mark a turning point for their fortunes."
Then again, that is a big if....
This article, written by Jasper Jackson, originally appeared on the MediaBriefing website.
http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/2013-04-25/deloitte-tablets-newspapers-subscriptions-smartphones-magazines
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