Media Voices publishes new report into how 2020 has changed the media landscape

Podcast producer Media Voices has launched a new report into the defining trends of 2020, analysing how the Covid-hit year has accelerated fundamental changes across the media industry. The annual publication also includes a collection of case studies from publishers and brands, and looks at the developments we can expect to see in 2021.

Produced in association with What’s New in Publishing, and sponsored by data platform, Permutive, the nine-chapter report has been co-Authored by Journalist and Podcaster, Esther Kezia Thorpe, who was one of the two Overall Winners at the FIPP Rising Stars in Media Awards earlier this year.

Some key takeaways from the report include:

1. UK newspaper sales were down 40 per cent at their worst point during lockdown
2. Despite the pandemic, UK podcast ad-spend is forecast to rise 14.7 per cent over the course of 2020
3. 45 per cent of ads were blocked from appearing on The Washington Post in March through one ad-software company, due to Covid-19 keyword blocking
4. Condé Nast UK saw 420 per cent y-o-y growth in new subscriptions during the pandemic
5. Despite publishers proving themselves to be on the public’s side this year, only 38 per cent of people say that they trust news overall
6. Three in four of the 52,000 attendees of the FT’s virtual Global Boardroom event were previously unknown to the publisher
7. By September, there were 106+ magazine covers featuring Black people or BLM messaging
8. Google has promised to pay more than US$1 billion in licensing content from publishers over the next three years
9. Axios now gets 50 per cent of its total revenue from newsletters

All of which are discussed in a special episode of the Media Voices Podcast released this week. Esther – along with co-Hosts Chris Sutcliffe and Peter Houston – are joined by a panel featuring Jemima Villanueva, Executive Director, EMEA at The Atlantic, Aly Nurmohamed, General Manager of Permutive, and Andrea Barbalich, Editor in Chief of The Week Junior US.

In his introduction to the report, Jeremy Walters, Editor of What’s New In Publishing, says: “This year has taken its toll on everyone, not just in publishing, and the uncertainty and disruption look set to continue well into the future. But if 2020 has taught publishers just one thing, it’s this: diversified revenue streams are paramount. Those publishers that branched into at least four main revenue streams prior to 2020 were far better shielded from cratering ad rates, cancelled events and the other Covid-19 curve balls that no one could have possibly foreseen.”

You can download the report in full here.