Three things you need to know about PwC’s Magazine Media Outlook
B2B should be abroad
Total magazine revenue will track upward through 2019, largely on the strength of a 1.5 per cent compound annual growth rate in trade magazines, spurred by performance in foreign markets. B2B media thrives in growing economies as companies look to enhance market intel, and countries like Peru and China, the report says, will see the fastest growth in total trade magazine revenue, with CAGRs of 8.5 per cent and 8.3 per cent, respectively.
Change is slow
While a few consumer magazines already rely on digital for a majority of their revenue, most of the industry still relies heavily on print—PwC’s data suggests print ads will generate roughly three or four times more revenue than digital will this year. It’s not surprising that the print-digital revenue mix is changing over time, but it’ll continue to happen gradually through 2019. Even five-years down the road, print revenue will still account for nearly two-thirds of ad spending.
Digital Editions Don’t Matter: Consumer magazines get almost all their circulation revenue from print, and that’s not about to change. Even as the world gets inundated with devices—PwC forecasts that smartphone ownership will double by 2019—digital editions will still only generate a small fraction of what print does.
(Interestingly, the report argues that ebooks will have an easier time than digital magazines in displacing print predecessors. In countries with high tablet penetration, like the US, ebooks will make up more than 40 per cent of total book revenue by 2019.)
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