U.S. Publishers Split Over the Future of Print

Publishing

May 12, 2014 -- A recent survey of U.S. publishers finds the debate over the future of print to be split.

The April-May 2014 survey of 389 qualified U.S. magazine and newspaper publishing executives finds 37% believe print will continue to be the primary way readers access their content, while 34% say print is the least important channel going forward, behind smartphones, tablets and PCs.

Overall, publishers deemed smartphones to be the most important content access method moving forward (40%), followed by print (37%), tablets (19%) and PCs (4%).

Other key findings from the survey conducted by audience insight company Cxense, in conjunction with Editor and Publisher magazine:
 

• The majority (88%)  of respondents are optimistic that their company’s digital revenues will grow during the next 12 months. Among those who believe a bounce back is possible, the most important ways to ensure this:
   

  • 36% rank “showing advertisers we understand our readers and can target them effectively” as the key to increasing their revenues

  • 26% said “making content personalized for each site visitor to increase loyalty and time on site” as most important to growing revenues

  • 22% believe that “converting readers to paid subscribers,” is the way forward

  • Personalized advertising is cited by 11% as most important and “introducing e-commerce to publisher sites” ranks fifth (6%).

• Publishers have little knowledge of which and how many third-party companies – such as Google, Facebook, advertising vendors and others – are accessing and profiting from their user and audience; nearly 80 percent of respondents simply do not know who accesses their audience data.

• Of publishers that understand which third-party companies access their data, more than 20% acknowledged that the third parties are “likely earning more money from our data than we are.” Nearly 70% of the respondents said sites like Google, Yahoo and Facebook that pull content from their site and use their data are “frenemies.”

• More than a third of respondents (34%) don’t believe the U.S. news media industry’s ad revenues will ever surpass its all-time high of 2005; 60% think it will take 2-10 years to exceed that level.

• When asked which tactic was the most important to the future of publishing, top rankings (top rank and second rank, combined):
   

  • Targeted advertising - 62%

  • Native advertising - 46%

  • Dynamic mobile content - 43%

  • Site personalization - 29%

  • Publisher controlled premium programmatic buying and selling - 13%

Source: Cxense, Publishing Profitability Survey Shows Mix of Optimism, Naiveté, May 12, 2014