Digiday Research: 80% of publishers lower Q2 forecasts

coronavirus ad downturn

This research is based on unique data collected from our proprietary audience of publisher, agency, brand and tech insiders. It’s available to Digiday+ members. More from the series →

In February, publishers braced themselves for a tough quarter ahead. Now, reality is beginning to emerge.

A Digiday Research survey of 127 publishers found that 52% of publishers missed their first-quarter numbers. About 23% managed to exceed their forecasts, while 25% hit them.

Publishers are bracing for a worse second-quarter: 80% have lowered forecasts.

Back in March, Digiday Research found that 88% of the publishing executives surveyed expected to miss business goals for the entire year. About 85% of them expected to see a decline in ad revenue, 79% in event revenue and 68% in commerce revenue.

It’s been an especially tough time for news publishers: 59% of them said they missed their forecasts in the first quarter, and 19% of them exceeded it.

As for the second quarter, only 1% have raised their forecast, while a whopping 70% have lowered it.


Advertisers continue to be reluctant to spend any money on ads alongside coronavirus content. A prior Digiday survey found that 40% of brands are not advertising next to coronavirus-related news online, up slightly from the same survey conducted a month ago, when 37% said they will not buy ads alongside coronavirus-related content.

https://digiday.com/?p=367186

More in Media

Creators are ditching Substack over ideological shift in 2025

The writers who left Substack in early 2025 represent a second wave after an initial burst of Substack creators left the platform in January 2024.

How Dotdash Meredith enlisted OpenAI to boost its contextual ad product, with Lindsay Van Kirk

Dotdash Meredith’s gm of D/Cipher discussed the publisher’s OpenAI deal in a live recording of the Digiday Podcast at last week’s Digiday Publishing Summit.

Google ad tech antitrust trial

Publishers left guessing how Google’s March 2025 core update will reshape search 

Google’s core updates, which happen multiple times a year, change its search algorithms and systems and have the potential to make or break publishers’ traffic.