Second edition of World Digital Media Factbook to launch at FIPP Congress

FIPP’s World Digital Media Factbook 2013-14 will launch at the FIPP World Magazine Congress in Rome this September. The second edition of the Digital Media Factbook explores revenue and usage trends across digital platforms, including social media, video, mobile, tablets, internet and beyond in order to show where investment and strategy opportunities lie for media companies today and tomorrow. Presenting the findings from the Digital Media Factbook will be Martha Stone, CEO of the World NewsmediaNetwork.

The FIPP Digital Factbook features more than 500 data sets from more than 65 major research companies from around the world including comScore, GfK MRI, IDATE, IDG Connect, McPheters, mediaIDEAS, MPA, MAGNAGLOBAL, Nielsen, OPA, Pew, PricewaterhouseCoopers, WARC, ZenithOptimedia, Zinio etc. Case studies include Meredith’s expansion of its magazine audience through digital, The Economist’s education business and Future’s transformation into a profitable digital magazine publisher.

FIPP has worked with the World News Media Network (WNMN) to develop the depth and breadth of the magazine media content of the previous seven editions of the WNMN report. Together FIPP and WNMN have set out to present all the key qualitative and quantitative research on digital media in one place, incorporating expert analysis and hundreds of datasets to put magazine media in the context of the entire world of digital media. The World Digital Media Factbook gives an overview of the magazine landscape in print and digital revenue and usership patterns, and identifies opportunities for new revenues. It also showcases innovative magazines companies and their winning digital strategies.

The report shows that digital media continue to be a huge opportunity and a persistent challenge for traditional media: newspapers, magazines and broadcast. However, in 2012 and 2013, traditional media are making colossal strides in innovating new storytelling methods on mobile and tablet; making money with paywalls; increasing revenue and market share from advertising; and exploring new forms of revenue-making, such as e-commerce, m-commerce and in-app e-commerce.

Key findings from the FIPP World Digital Media Factbook:

• The fastest growing internet usage countries are in the developing world, including China, Indonesia, India, Iran, Russia, the Philippines and Brazil, according to United Nations and Internet World Stats, as relayed by Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends 2013. All but Russia are seeing double-digital growth rates, and tens of millions of users to their countries’ internet ranks.
• By 2015, internet video will represent 33.6 per cent of all internet traffic, compared to 8.6 per cent for web, email and data; and 8.1 per cent for P2P file sharing, according to eMedia Institute. This compares with 2012 where internet video only represented 12.1 per cent of internet use, while web, email and data made up 4.1 per cent and P2P file sharing made up 5.3 per cent.
• Western Europe mobile ad spend will surpass that of Asia Pacific next year, and will track to more than half that of North America by 2016, according to eMarketer. Meanwhile, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Middle East and Africa (MENA) will garner just a fraction of the almost US$37bn in mobile ad spend by 106.
• About half of US business publications and newspapers have or are planning a paywall, according to Alliance for Audited Media, formerly the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The survey showed that 54 per cent of business publications, 48 per cent of newspapers and 22 per cent of consumer magazines now have or are planning a paywall for their content.
• The world’s overall advertising market will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 4.8 per cent from 2013 to 2017, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Broken down by advertising expenditure, by region, Latin America and Asia Pacific will see the most impressive growth, at 8.3 per cent and 6.3 per cent, respectively.
• Most e-commerce is being done by personal computer buyers, especially in the developed world, while multiplatform buyers are second most likely to purchase on digital platforms, especially in the developed world, according to GlobalWebIndex.
• In China, mobile internet has already surpassed PC internet, according to Mary Meeker’s digital report of CNCC figures. By the end of 2012, 75 per cent of internet users in China accessed via the mobile phone, while 71 per cent accessed via desktop PCs. In June 2007, 96 per cent of internet users accessed by desktop PC, while 28 per cent accessed via mobile phone.
• A comScore study shows that nearly one third of internet page views in the United Kingdom are from smartphones and tablets. This statistic dwarfs mobile internet access figures for other European countries, but mobile internet access in Europe is still notable.