Friday 29th May: Crisis speeding publisher transition to alternative revenue models

May 29, 2020

Good morning! Today's Media Roundup is brought to you by Peter.

Digital subscription growth and declining ad revenues —trends that have come to define publishing in the pandemic— were well underway before the coronavirus crisis took hold. “In the final quarter of 2019, which included a general election, we saw a remarkable 24% increase in digital subscriptions; the fastest rise for six quarters,” says Dan Ison at Deloitte.

WNIP is reporting that the quarterly Digital Publishers Revenue Index (DPRI) from Deloitte the AOP could, maybe, point to a deeper, potentially permanent transformation of the publishing business.

The optimists among us hope that, yes, these figures indicate a structural transition that sees publishers on the way to building a more reliable revenue portfolio; less reliant on advertising, mixing reader revenues, ecommerce and maybe one day, events.

News Corp will will stop printing 112 community and regional newspapers, transitioning 76 to digital and closing 36. According to reports in The Australian Financial Review this is another example of the Covid crisis fast-tracking plans that were already underway.

Pop-Up is a live magazine: curated performances of 10 different stories, all in front of an audience. But the lockdown has forced Pop-Up to abandon its no recordings rule and put out its first video edition. “The Spring Issue: At Home” premiered on YouTube.

Zuck doesn't think private companies should be the arbiter of truth online. We agree, but surely facts are facts and sometime soon, someone has to take some responsibility for shutting down the BS that is being spread all over by the world's politicians.

This week's podcast:

This week, we spoke to Ella Dolphin, CEO of the Stylist Group. She talked about the acceleration of the title’s plans to adopt a reader revenue model as the free print magazine distribution was put on hold. how that has affected the team’s workflow, and what the focus will look like for the group post-pandemic.

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