Wednesday 22nd June: Newspapers set to lose $2 billion+ in print ad investment

June 22, 2022

Good morning! Today's newsletter is brought to you by Esther.

The U.S. is expected to make history in 2026 when it becomes the first major media market in the world to see digital newspaper ad revenue eclipse print newspaper ad revenue, according to a new report from PwC.

Of course, it's not that digital has soared past print, rather that print ad revenues have declined below the otherwise steady digital ad income.

You don't need me to tell you the headache this will give publishers still reliant on print advertising. According to Axios, US newspaper publishers are set to lose $2.4 billion in ad investment between 2021 and 2016, largely due to print advertising losses.

The silver lining is that newspaper circulation revenues (in both digital and print) are expected to surpass advertising this year.

UK-based business intelligence publisher Informa has had a good year so far, with underlying group revenue growth of more than 40%. Their events growth has caught MediaPost writer Tony Silber's eye as it signals a significant bounceback for live events. Even though the effects of the pandemic are still ricocheting, people (and sponsors) are keen to get back in the room. If train strikes let them.

It won't be a surprise to anyone that the NYT's smart acquisition of viral word game Wordle has given it a boost. Visits to their website were up 52% year-on-year to 524.6 million. The Daily Mail has also seen strong web growth, but others like Fox News, The Guardian and the BBC saw website visits decline last month.

Ahead of our special Cannes episode with Sovrn dropping later today, here's a taste of what people are talking about on the French Riviera this week. The focus is on optimistic ad forecasts, augmented reality, Gen Z and the attention economy. Thankfully there's just one mention of the word 'metaverse'.

This week's podcast

In this special episode of Media Voices, Chris, Peter and Esther comb through the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2022 to pick out the key findings for publishers. Listen now to explore why news avoidance is up and trust is down; the relief we felt that climate coverage is on top of everyone's agenda; how the news habits of younger generations are growing more distinct; and what the report's first ever chapter dedicated to email newsletters had to say.

Publishing is way behind other industries when it comes to technology consolidation. This episode, Affino CEO Markus Karlsson and TTG Media Product Manager Steve Hinds join us to talk about the benefits of systems consolidation, the challenges publishers face, and how they can get started.