The publishing industry is in ‘remarkably robust’ health, according to a new survey of 187 companies – encompassing 911 consumer magazines, 855 B2B magazines and newsletters, 413 newspapers (both regional and national) and a total of 1,056 individual websites.

The survey, which was a joint project between Wide Area, Wessenden Marketing and InPublishing magazine, suggests a slide rather than plunge in industry turnover – partly a result of ‘headcount reduction and ruthless cost control, where marketing budgets in particular have suffered’.

“Online growth is clearly outstripping print revenue trends; circulation revenues are performing better than advertising sales; and subscription sales better than retail copy sales. ‘Other revenues’ (which include reader offers, events & services, as well as contract publishing) are showing medium growth, behind online, but ahead of print revenue streams,” the survey suggests.

This is an extensive piece of work, well worth a read (you’ll need to register), and includes sub-sections dealing with:
Online opportunities and threats
Website profitability and costs
How publishers are planning to ‘manage the future’

Some key findings from the report are below:

• 59 per cent of those surveyed have under 10 per cent of their turnover coming from online/digital activities;
• Online revenue streams are showing the most growth with paid-for online content, classified online and display advertising ranking above print revenue streams;
• 20 per cent of publishers surveyed are looking to grow staff numbers, while 54 per cent will hold steady;
• Online, the highest threat publishers are facing is a lack of resources/focus/knowledge e.g. not having the skills in-house to adapt to new technologies or resources to develop online offerings;
• Cutting costs and overheads and developing more innovative, multimedia advertising strategies are seen as the most critical tasks for publishers going forward.

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Following the release of six month certificates for the regional press, media auditors ABC are extending the offer of twice yearly online audits to all media owners, from January 2009.

An ABC press release said yesterday that the new certificates will detail monthly and daily unique users or browsers for media publishers. Visual charts will also be available.

The existing monthly audits can still be conducted using ABCe.

The ABC statement explained that by choosing to report their online figures on a six month basis, publishers ‘are committing to continuous reporting of their online activity’.

Speaking in the release, Jan Pitt, director of magazines, ABC, said: “The response has been good so far, these changes are to give publishers more options and enable them to demonstrate to advertisers and media buyers their cross platform performance.”

A guide to how the reporting options work can be downloaded from the ABC website at www.abce.org.uk.

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Adrian Sudbury, the journalist-turned-blogger who sadly passed away this week, is to have his blog posts published in a book for charity.

Adrian, who chronicled his battle against leukaemia on Baldy’s Blog, set-up a campaign to make education about bone marrow donation compulsory in UK schools and colleges.

The volume will feature posts from the blog and a selection of comments from its readers, as well as photos of Adrian and a foreword by Gordon Brown, whom Adrian met as part of his campaign.

All proceeds from Baldy’s Book will go to leukaemia charity The Anthony Nolan Trust.

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