Future of Magazines: Digital Gains, Offsetting Decline of Traditional Medium

Milestone: Digital Gains Offset Magazines’ Decline At Future
By Robert Andrews@robertandrews

Feb 8, 2012 2:04 AM

Magazine and web publisher Future has hit a key milestone in the media industry’s great transition - UK digital revenues made up for print revenue falls between October and December.

Digital circulation and advertising revenue growth of 51 percent from the previous year came thanks to Future having pushed 65 of its titles to iTunes Store upon Newsstand’s launch early in October.

The result is finally an encouraging sign of light at the end of the tunnel for legacy media businesses which have spent years attempting to transition their efforts from analogue to digital.


Future CEO Mark Wood: “We are starting to see a significant change in the shape of the business as our digital innovation enables us to reach entirely new consumers in global digital markets.”

Future’s UK revenue for the quarter still fell by two percent, but that was mostly from the loss of a separate customer publishing contract, Future reported in Wednesday’s interim earnings disclosure.

Now, for some, the reality may be dawning that, despite many digital products reaping owners dimes rather than dollars when compared with print equivalents, publishing them at scale can nevertheless return a company to pre-digital revenue growth rates.

As paidContent reported in January, Future’s free container apps for its tablet editions have been downloaded nearly 10 million times since Newsstand’s October launch, generating individual sales of over 430,000 magazines during the period.

Forty percent of tablet edition sales are subscriptions, but some of them may be short-term renewals.

“Print sales will be challenging, but we expect digital revenue to maintain a vigorous growth rate,” the company added in its market disclosure on Wednesday.

In the U.S., Future has been more challenged by the more rapid evaporation of print magazine circulations. But, after the board jettisoned CEO Stevie Spring and its finance director in October, replacement Wood has tackled the problem by selling Future’s U.S.-facing music magazines for up to $3 million and by committing to launch U.S. versions of its Radar web portals, starting with TechRadar. Cost cuts have now offset U.S. revenue falls, Wood reports.

The company did not specify print circulation trends.

Source: http://moconews.net/article/419-milestone-digital-gains-offset-magazines-decline-at-future/

Sulzberger on the future of print

Sulzberger on the future of print

by Dariya Golubkova ON 9 NOV 2011 IN NEWS

As part of its initiative to bring together journalists and the public to discuss issues surrounding the media and its impact on society, the POLIS Media Agenda Talks series welcomed Arthur Sulzberger Jr., current publisher of the New York Times and chairman of the New York Times Company.
Mr. Sulzeberger addressed the future of print journalism and its current transition into the digital age at an event titled “The Digital Transformation of the New York Times,” which was well attended by students, faculty and guests, including John F. Burns, current London Bureau Chief of the New York Times.
Quality in the world of journalism carries many meanings. To Sulzberger, quality is rooted in reporting accurately and honestly, while being able to engage communities in a variety of ways, many of which were not possible ten years ago but have since become the norm.
At the beginning of his talk, Sulzberger referenced a comprehensive report compiled by the research group Netprospex. Their study aimed to report the “use of social media by businesses across the United States,” and ranked the New York Times Times as the most social company based on (online) social presence. These findings put the New York Times ahead of global conglomerates such as Adobe, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple. They also showcase what Sulzberger refers to as the New York Times priority of the “utilization of social media,” which in turn allows the company to find “great success building upon our readership.”

The story of the reach of the New York Times within the social media atmosphere can be told both empirically and normatively. Empirically speaking, the main Facebook page of the New York Times is home to 1.7 million fans and their main Twitter account has 3.8 million followers. But that, as Sulzberger puts it, “doesn’t even begin to tell the story.” The numbers increase to 15.8 million followers on Twitter when the pages of all the New York Times’ journalists are added in as well. But perhaps the most telling empirical clue as to the influence of the New York Times within the social media field is the fact that a story from the New York Times is tweeted every four seconds.

Normatively, the reach of the New York Times is best exhibited by journalists like Nicolas Kristof, Chris Chivers and Lydia Polgreen. Kristof’s reporting from some of the world’s most war-torn locations has created real-time communities, while Chivers’ use of Tumblr and Twitter to “draw back the veil on his reporting, posting stories and snippets before they appear in print“ allows for real-time updates and journalist-reader interaction. Polgreen’s work on India during her time as a New Delhi correspondent is now currently being expanded into a blog element under the title “India Inc.”
The commitment of the New York Times is influenced first and foremost by their audience: “We have an incredibly enlightened, sophisticated and intelligent group of users who are highly engaged with our products. Our efforts with social media are meant to tap into that knowledge.” It is the focus on what they, the users, can share with the New York Times and what the New York Times can share with other users that Sulzberger believes to be at the root of the company’s success with digitalising their content.

The altering culture of news content and its readership has pushed for the following changes within the New York Times company—expansion of their online discussion and community features, the redesigning of their comment section and the currently under-development “trusted commenter” program, which will allow a select group of readers with a history of high-quality comments to have their responses published in opinion pages at their will. This is in addition to digital enhancements, such as videos and live photo footage, as well as the award-wining graphics and aesthetic beauty of the New York Times’ iPad application.

All such efforts have led to an “increasing level of engagement in our site,” said Sulzberger, “includes more time spent, more stories read and more videos viewed.”

The New York Times underwent considerable criticism when it instilled its policy of paying for unlimited content online. Regardless, it still holds its position of a top newspaper website, with about “45 million unique viewers a day,” not to mention its ongoing reputation of quality journalism.
Responding to a question from the audience about the realistic longevity of print journalism, Sulzberger made it a point to state that the carbon copy of the newspaper will be around longer than most people expect.
Sulzberger ended the event with a promise to not compromise the standards of quality of writing due to financial pressures and increased news pace, and to continue utilizing media through all its platforms. “We see great value in social media; it’s critical in keeping us part of a global conversation.”

http://thebeaveronline.co.uk/2011/11/09/sulzberger-on-the-future-of-print/