AccuList's many business periodical clients will face challenges and opportunities in the fast-moving currents of publishing in 2020. The good news for printed magazines: Print is not only viable but thriving in many cases, with 64% of printing industry members telling Quocirca’s Global Print 2025 study that print will remain important well into 2025. At the same time, surveys show that digital subscriptions, advertising and content are increasingly necessary drivers of the bottom line. In fact, worldwide news publishers surveyed now say digital publishing subscriptions are their top revenue stream. Given mobile and social audience trends, publishers also say they are increasing efforts to recreate quick-loading content for any device and are using more digital content, including videos and podcasts, to drive audience development--and that includes distribution via social media networks. At the start of the year, a What's New in Publishing post by magazine consultant Mary Hogarth suggested that the best way to navigate the challenges of digital expansion, content innovation and multi-channel audience-building is to develop a solid business model that includes expanding revenue streams across print and digital channels. Here are some of Hogarth's suggestions for boosting revenue streams:
- Brand extensions, such as digital editions, sister publications, books, events, conferences, courses and festivals;
- Advertising sales strategy innovations, for example selling online plus print advertising as one package;
- Expanding sponsorships/promotions and services by facilitating strategic partnerships or third-party sponsorship of in-house events, plus selling design and content packaging services;
- Increased copy sales via digital/print magazines on newsstands, subscription growth, in-house back issue sales, and direct sales to partners/advertisers if appropriate;
- Memberships schemes that can help cash-flow and likely increase audience reach and reader loyalty;
- Online content/paywalls, such as using a micro-payment system to sell additional content;
- Product licensing, such as selling the rights to content to be re-purposed in an existing title, or licensing the brand in terms of merchandising.
For more and a link to the article, see our website blog post at https://www.acculist.com/the-right-business-model-helps-magazines-harness-industry-trends/
A recent blog post from B2B marketing agency Weidert argues that trade publications remain vital to B2B marketing. Whether online or in print, trade magazines retain reputation and authority with their vertical audiences, and many people trust information from these niche publications more than any other source, says Weidert blog author Tammy Borden. Borden notes that while circulation and ad spending for printed magazines may have dipped, digital editions are thriving. That contention is borne out by the latest PwC ad spending forecast, which sees an upward five-year path for trade magazine ad revenues from 2018 to 2022, albeit slight at 0.6%. The overall positive trend is because digital ad growth (9.3%) will offset print losses (-8.4%). In fact, PwC predicts that the digital ad spend will overtake print spending this year. Borden cites the multiple attractions of digital publications for business marketers, such as growing readership: According to the 2018 Mequoda Magazine Consumer Study, 42.4% of U.S. adults read at least one digital magazine per month — a 15% increase in three years. Plus, there are also now digital magazine marketplaces like Magzter and Zinio that allow readers to access thousands of B2B trade titles in one place, further expanding audience reach. For content marketers, digital content is especially appealing because it can not only link to websites but can be SEO-optimized to leverage online impact. Borden still touts the marketing value of printed trade periodicals as well. She points to a survey finding that more than 32% subscribe to one or two print magazines compared with only 18% for digital publications. Plus, the print version of a publication (like direct mail) offers a richer sensory experience (visual and tactile) and a shelf life unmatched by digital. With the option to place advertising or content in both print and digital versions of a respected business periodical, marketers can maximize audience preferences and reach. For more, see our website blog post at https://www.acculistusa.com/business-periodicals-retain-digital-print-influence/
Business and consumer publications face some pivotal audience- and revenue-building challenges, but there are also growth opportunities in 2018. We note three potential positives recently highlighted by Publishing Executive magazine. Audiences are increasing their demand for quality content, and advertisers are seeking publishers who can deliver that quality, so there is a lot of untapped revenue potential for publishers who commit to quality. This is especially true since the free-information era is ending as readers become wary of free but low-value content and increasingly willing to pay for reliable quality. For digital publishers, the downside of a shift to paid content can be a shrinkage of circulation, forcing them to balance potential subscription revenue against lower ad page-views. The Publishing Executive article offers mitigating tactics: leaky paywalls; metered paywalls; charging only for premium content; allowing only paid subscribers to comment or participate in an online community; early access to certain articles for paid subscribers, etc. Meanwhile, with daily access to vast amounts of information in print, online, media and social, mass-market-oriented print and digital publications have been struggling, and niche publishers proliferating. Readers want to focus on what’s relevant to their specific interests, and many advertisers want to reach the right pool of people more than just the largest pool of people. The trick for publications is to embrace niche demand without sacrificing too much circulation. The Publishing Executive article offers some suggestions. Digital publications can create a product-within-a-product on the website, for example, with content targeted to a subset of the normal audience and attractive to new sponsors who want to reach that specific audience. For print publications, there are niche-targeted inserts, bonus sections, customized covers, polybagged special reports, or ad packages that combine a full-page magazine ad with a niche-targeted cover wrap or insert. Finally, brand advertisers have become concerned about aligning with publishers who tolerate fake news, violence, extremism, or other offensive content. This means that respected publishers can court advertising revenue (and circulation) in 2018 by stressing brand quality and safety in their promotions. On that point, Publishing Executive quotes from an Advertising Age piece in which Shelagh Daly Miller of AARP declared: "Only when brands partner with reputable publishers can they have full confidence in where their ads are being placed. That’s a message that should be all over our industry’s media kits. And tattooed onto the foreheads of our ad reps." For more on publishing opportunity trends, see http://www.acculistusa.com/2018-offers-new-growth-opportunities-for-publishing-marketers/
The pursuit of circulation and ad revenue will push magazine publishers to embrace a number of digital publishing trends in 2017, per predictions in a Publishing Executive magazine article by Ron Matejko, president of digital publisher MVP Media. For one, watch for subscription drives to leverage digital outreach.While insert cards and direct mail remain sturdy tools for circulation marketing, Matejko foresees increased use of digital tools in audience development, and he cites the example of Dallas-based D Magazine, which is leveraging its combined database with outreach via automated and personalized e-mail campaigns and targeted social media advertising to audiences that look like their current print subscriber base. The result has been more new and renewed subscriptions for the print product, in fact almost a 100% increase in subscriptions generated monthly through digital efforts. Mobile apps are another area that will see increased interest, predicts Matejko. Consider the success story of Cities West Publishing in Arizona, which expanded its app offerings last year with interactive versions of two monthly print publications, as well as apps to supplement multimedia campaigns for two special issues. The benefits: branding, extended shelf life beyond the newsstand, and revenue via multi-platform value-added for print ad partners. Plus, Matejko cites other tech innovations that could transform digital publishing, particularly when teamed with mobile. For more on his digital publishing trend predictions, see http://www.acculistusa.com/2017-magazine-trends-digital-embrace-platform-tensions/
The good news for publishers is that total audience—across print, Web, mobile and video—grew robustly in 2016, up 6.4% over the prior year, according to the 2016 Magazine Media 360° Brand Audience Report from the Association of Magazine Media (MPA). But there is a challenge for publications within the data: the continued shift to a mobile audience. Although print and digital editions continued to garner the largest audience for magazine media last year, the mobile platform had the most rapid growth rate, per the MPA's trend analysis. Nearly 80% of the brands reporting showed mobile growth, with 79% of those brands up by either double- or triple-digit percentages. More than a quarter of the brands in the report grew their mobile unique visitors by one million or more each. That mobile growth came at the expense of Web (desktop/laptop) users. In fact, the Web audience represented the only magazine media platform to decline as consumers spent more time on portable devices than computers. Meanwhile, though video remained the smallest audience platform in 2016, it also recorded strong growth, per MPA, up by double-digit percentage rates. For more, see our post at http://www.acculistusa.com/growing-magazine-audiences-continue-shift-toward-mobile/
