Paid News Legacy Titles and New Media Compete For Share Of Digital Voice
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The 20,000 Foot View: In an economy based on attention, the monetisation of news in 2017 balances declining advertising revenues against a push towards building subscribers. Emerging business models and shifts in consumer behaviour are reshaping news monetisation and directly impacting the publishers of news content. Subscriptions are driving digital revenues at a time when overall consumer demand for news sources is now a niche activity, with only of consumers subscribing to multiple media services. At the same time, news app engagement is stalling, thereby limiting the growth opportunity for news subscriptions. Bundling news subscriptions alongside mainstream consumer services such as Amazon Prime is positioned to become the main monetisation model.
Key Findings:
- The total digital publishing market is worth as of 2017 of all users consume news online or on mobile
- Only of mobile users subscribe to multiple paid content services across Video, Music and News of Financial Times subscribers and New York Times subscribers are now digital only Amazon Prime accounts create an opportune market for bundles featuring the Washington Post
- The Washington Post is the only major newspaper company to publish all of its content directly to Facebook’s Instant Articles
- Limited downloads on new apps mean it is difficult for news sites to engender new audiences on their own platforms
- BuzzFeed and Vice have audience penetration among but never above
- Slowdown in app downloads limits ability to draw users to a core platform outside of bundles
Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Apple, Amazon, BuzzFeed, Daily Mail, The Economist, Facebook, Financial Times, Google, The Guardian, Instagram, Mashable, New York Times, Quartz, Snapchat, USA Today, Vice, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post