Newspaper & Mailroom

Just Published: The World News Future and Change Study

Tuesday 07. December 2010 - Newspaper publishers around the globe understand their traditional revenue sources will not return to the levels they enjoyed in years past, and they are making the development of new products and new channels their top priorities for more profit, the second annual World News Future & Change Study concludes.

Continual transformation and change is a way of life in the media world, not a one-time process, they acknowledge in the study, conducted by the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers’ (WAN-IFRA), in partnership with the Norwegian School of Management (BI) and the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom.
“The media ecosystem is changing rapidly, and newspapers and their ancillary businesses are developing new businesses to meet the challenges. The hundreds of publishers from around the world responding to our survey are building new print and digital publications, as well as other businesses, such as training and conferences,” said Martha Stone, Director of the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project. “Our survey documents the reality publishers see in the diminishing print advertising business, but are bullish about building new businesses to replace all or some of that revenue.”
Conducted in nine languages, the survey aimed to reach top executives from management, commercial and editorial sectors to understand how each branch views the changes that must happen to manage change and flourish in the new media environment.
Almost one-third of the 500 survey respondents from almost 100 countries came from media companies with between 51 and 250 employees, while nearly another third came from companies with more than 500 employees. National, local and regional papers each provided about one-third of respondents, with an insignificant number coming from international publications.
One-fourth of the survey takers came from the Nordic region of Europe. Compared to 2009’s study, geographic distribution did not change significantly.
Respondents detailed the state of revenue making over the past year in their companies and countries, during the global advertising downturn. They also gave insight into their plans to restore and grow their revenue-making over the next one to five years. Plans include things like cost savings, investments, efficiencies and personnel growth and development.
Despite the wide range of resources, regions and company size represented in the survey, a majority of newspaper company executives agreed on the No. 1 objective for their companies in the next year: new product development.
In the 2010 study, more respondents indicated they need additional revenue from outside sources to achieve their business objectives. Nineteen percent (up more than 4 percent from 2009) said they will need between 11 percent and 20 percent more to achieve their objectives. Another 27 percent said they will need between 21 percent and 30 percent more non-traditional revenue in the next five years, up 1.3 percent from 2009.
The way to create these new outside revenues is through investing in new product development, respondents overwhelmingly said. Other important investments listed include marketing and branding, increased audience research and investment in customer relationship management.
More than 67 percent of survey-takers indicated they will develop new media products in the next 12 months, and half said they are looking for new ways to streamline workflows and processes, so work can be done more efficiently. In fact, six out of 10 respondents said developing new media products has the greatest potential to save money and drive efficiency.
When it comes to cost savings, a heartening development is that reducing employee numbers is low on the list. Instead, respondents are focusing on cost reductions in materials, printing and distribution, which represent an estimated 70 percent of a typical newspaper company’s costs. Other areas in which newspaper companies are seeking efficiencies include consolidation of office space, IT and content syndication and content generation.
Investing in training and development is also important, respondents indicated. The two most important training investments are developing sales peoples’ skills and developing journalists’ skills, followed by converging multimedia operations and inter-departmental cooperation, as well as e-business development training and management/leadership development.
The World News Future and Change Study report is offered free to WAN-IFRA members and can be purchased by non-members. Its executive summary is available to anyone for free download.
WAN-IFRA is a leading provider of industry research and analysis. Its SFN project identifies, analyses and publicises all important breakthroughs and opportunities that can benefit newspapers all over the world. SFN provides WAN-IFRA members with Strategy Reports on these developments, a library of case studies and business ideas, and a wealth of other vital information for all those who need to follow press industry trends.
WAN-IFRA conducts the SFN project with support from four international partners — manroland, a leading company for newspaper production systems; Telenor, the leading Norwegian telecommunications, IT and media group; Atex, the leading supplier of solutions and services for advertising, content management, circulation and online applications; and Norske Skog, the Norway-based global paper producer.