Digiday Research: With ad businesses suffering, publishers turn even more to subscriptions
The impacts of the coronavirus outbreak are still just beginning to be felt on the economy. In media, the global pandemic has meant a forecasted drop in ad revenue and event revenue for publishers. About 88% of them say they will miss their forecasts for the year.
In response, publishers are also ramping up focus on certain parts of their business.
A new Digiday Research survey on the business impacts of the coronavirus outbreak has found that 40% said spending more resources on building their subscription businesses is their biggest priority, while 32% of them also indicated that branded content programs and “virtual events” are now taking up more of their attention and resources.
But for many, spending more resources simply isn’t an option. Some of the publishers who took this survey said that they “aren’t spending resources because we can’t afford to.” Another said: “We’re not reallocating resources, we’re diminishing resources.” Others are cutting any sort of spending radically, including on overheads like office space.
According to our benchmarking research, the priorities before the outbreak were growing direct-sold ads, programmatic ads and branded content revenue. Subscriptions were the fifth priority for most publishers heading into the second-quarter, just as the outbreak started to make its presence felt in the U.S.
-
Green shoots: Publishers see ad activity return in China
Publishers are starting to see activity emerge from China and Northeast Asia.
-
‘A function of confidence’: Uncertainty casts a shadow over M&A deals
Dealmaking has been rife in the media and ad sectors in recent years as the market consolidated around fewer, more powerful players. But as the coronavirus hit, many companies have pulled the brakes on their acquisition plans. Save for one or two processes that were due to complete soon anyway, the majority of investment bank […]
-
How food publishers are giving back to the restaurant industry
While producing additional coverage may be the obvious approach for serving their communities in a time of need, Food & Wine, Eater and Thrillist have taken it a step further by setting up fundraising features and promoting local businesses.
-
SponsoredPublishers are experimenting with more engagement models
A growing number of publishers are using registration walls, paywalls and metered models to collect first-party user data and drive subscription revenue.
-
Bustle Digital Group, G/O Media cut staff
Bustle Digital Group announced the layoffs of a dozen staffers on Friday, including the entirety of The Outline’s staff, and pay cuts for some remaining employees.
-
‘Companies are in freeze mode’: Coronavirus crisis strains ad tech licensing model
Like so many other industries, the coronavirus crisis is rapidly separating the distance between the haves and the have nots in the software-as-a-service sector. In ad tech in particular, there was a rush in the middle of the last decade for companies to switch their models from charging clients a percentage of the media they […]
