Digiday Research: 88% of publishers say they will miss forecasts this year
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 a new survey examining business confidence, Digiday Research found that 88% of publishing executives surveyed expect to miss their business goals this year due to the outbreak.
Ninety-five executive-level publishers were surveyed this week in a snap poll to understand the effects of the outbreak on their business. Of them, 85% said also that they expect to see a decline in ad revenue due to the pandemic.
That problem is an exceptionally difficult one. Coronavirus dominates news coverage, and with levels of worry skyrocketing, plus a lot more people working from home, means more people are consuming news. But publishers have found it difficult to monetize this coverage with advertising: Many big brands are staying away from spending adjacent to coronavirus coverage, and throwing associated keywords into their block lists.
About 79% of publishers surveyed said they also expect, unsurprisingly, to see a decline in event revenue due to the outbreak. Events have been a particularly important source of revenue for publishers across B-to-B and consumer media. With large gatherings effectively banned, this important source of revenue is essentially decimated.
Right now, only 38% of publishers say they expect to lay off staff due to the outbreak.
More in Media
Forbes tests a creator-led audience play to grow off-platform reach
Forbes is yet another publisher tapping creators and their audiences to drive off-platform growth – with a slightly different structure.
How Lipton Ice Tea is using local creators instead of building in-house social teams
Lipton worked with Billion Dollar Boy to activate local creators across six different markets; a new approach to global marketing
How a German publisher JV is turning LLM visibility into a premium brand buy
Germany’s BCN, the joint-venture commercial arm of three major publishing houses – Hubert Burda Media, Funke and Klambt – is rolling out a commercial product that helps brands get properly surfaced and described inside ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI assistants, not just on traditional search results pages.