Digital Media Continues to Reduce Revenues of Newspaper Industry

Print News: Digital Media Continues to Reduce Revenues of Newspaper Industry
The opening of the World Newspaper Conference in Hyderabad has brought ambivalent tidings for the newspaper industry, with reports that, while global revenues continue to grow, circulation in Europe and the US faces a long-term decline. Timothy Balding, the co-chief executive officer of the World Newspapers Association, delivered his newspaper report to a packed conference of 900+ publishers, at a time when the industry is desperate to make digital outlets profitable. Mr. Balding reported that, though publishers have expanded their audiences with online hubs, web revenues cannot replace those lost from print newspapers.


Using data prepared by World Press Trends and World Digital Media Trends, Mr Balding commented that, in a press advertising industry worth $182 billion, $6 billion was accrued through digital media. Further, PricewaterhouseCoopers forecasts that by 2013 online revenues will not exceed $8.4 billion. “At no time soon will digital advertising revenues come close to achieving the sort of revenues required, by many, to compensate for falling print revenue," Mr. Balding said. "If newspaper companies wish to maintain their strong content leadership, someone is going to have to pay. It looks like we have to solve the digital payment issue – and soon.”

Yet the news from Hyderabad, India was not all bad. Mr. Balding was at pains to emphasise that newspaper printing was “not facing an apocalypse.” Thanks to increasing circulation rates in developing markets such as Africa and Latin America, where circulation increased by 1.3% last year, newspaper printing is buoyant. Over five years, the circulation increase totals almost 9%. Mr Balding noted: "You might say that this growth is taking place in the developing markets and masks a continued downward trend in the developed world. And to a degree this is true.’ Yet he showed that Europe has only seen a 3% drop in the last half decade.

Mr. Balding’s report suggests a need for the newspaper industry to adapt to new challenges, especially in the developed world, where digital media is putting printed news under pressure. Yet the World Newspaper Conference is as much a celebration of the industry as a chance for developing solutions. The Hindu is hosting pictures from the jubilant inaugural ceremony of the conference, for example. Mr. Balding’s report holds some heartening figures too: globally, 1.9 billion people read a newspaper daily, with the majority opting for a printed edition. And India alone records 107 million daily sales from the newspaper industry.

The World Newspaper Conference will continue over the remainder of the week, and includes reports from many leading publishers and editors in the newspaper industry. This year marks the 62nd annual gathering of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (or WAN-IFRA), which includes members from most nations.