SFN report: Overall revenue suffered at global newspapers due to economy's impact

Posted by Erina Lin on January 8, 2010 at 3:36 PM

The first annual World Newspaper Future & Change Study is a global research study about newspaper publishers' business strategies moving forward for the next five years, with the key objective to inspire newspaper executives to invest and innovate their business units and business practices, the latest SFN's report, Charting the Course for Newspapers, reported.

The purpose of the study is to pinpoint the business and strategic challenges of the world's newspapers, and then to identify the publishers' strategies moving forward to turn the challenges into opportunities.

According to the study, overall revenue has indeed suffered at newspapers around the world, with declines in revenue outpacing increases.

Globally, 38 percent of the respondents said their companies suffered at least a 20 percent blow to revenues in the past year, followed by 25.6 percent of the respondents reporting an 11 percent to 20 percent decline, and 24.1 percent reporting a one to 10 percent decline. Just over 12 percent of the respondents reported no change or slight increases in the past year.

The decline of print advertising revenue - traditionally the cash cow - was largely to blame for declines, with respondents reporting an almost proportional correlation between print advertising declines and overall revenue declines. Print subscription and sales revenue was down, but to a lesser degree, with one third of the respondents reporting no change or slight increases, and 37 percent reporting dips of 1 percent to 10 percent reduction in sales; 17.6 percent reporting between 11 percent and 20 percent declines; and 9.7 percent reporting declines of 20 percent or more, particularly in hard-hit North America and northern Europe.

Online advertising and subscription sales survey responses told far more positive stories.

More than 70 percent of the respondents worldwide reported no change or increases in online advertising revenue, and 57.6 percent of the respondents report no change in online subscription revenue. Over 20 percent noted an increase in online content revenue. For revenue from non-media sources, almost half of the respondents reported no change, while almost an equal number reported losses and gains.

The report, released by SFN and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, details the results of the Future & Change Study, completed in partnership with the Norwegian School of Management and the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom, which shows a majority of the 653 respondents around the world are looking to businesses outside the printed newspaper in order to grow revenues and revamp structures along the value chain that are no longer functioning at full throttle.