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Newspapers Mull Future amid Digital Media Boom

Newspaper companies’ digital platforms - including online and mobile - are growing at dizzying rates worldwide (in usage and revenue growth) and outperforming the traditional medium, according to the second annual World Digital Media Trends report.

The report was released at the World Newspaper Congress, by the World Association of Newspapers, in Goeteborg, Sweden, on Tuesday, June 3.  It examines digital media advertising and usage trends and their impact on newspaper companies.

Media consumption is booming due to the emergence and growth of digital channels, which are forecast to account for some 80% of media usage by 2020, according to Aegis Group’s Carat, the report notes:

WAN President Gavin O’Reilly is quoted by the AP as saying that despite the growing importance of digital, newspapers should not rush headlong, without preparation, into new mobile and internet markets - since some 60% of new digital revenues now goes to Google and Yahoo.

Newspapers’ share of global ad spend is expected to decrease from a projected 26.5% in 2008 to 25.0% in 2011, while internet’s share is expected to increase from 10.8% to 13.8% during the same period (source: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Wilkofsky Gruen Associates):

Among the other findings of the report:

• Digital and mobile advertising revenues are projected to grow to more than 150 billion dollars by 2011, a 12-fold growth from 2002.
• Wireless subscriptions continue to grow, from 1.1 billion in 2002 to a projected 3.4 billion in 2011, an expansion of more than threefold.
• Broadband is expected to grow from 51.38 million households worldwide in 2002 to nearly 540 million households in 2011, a growth of more than tenfold.
• The mobile customer base has grown from 945 million in 2001 to 2.6 billion in 2006.

About the report: World Digital Media Trends, published by the WAN Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project, includes studies from 71 research partners about digital usage and revenue patterns, as well as case studies of newspaper companies’ digital strategies that are increasing revenue and audiences. Excerpts are publicly available.