Newspapers saw adspend plummet by 26.3% in April
Australia’s newspaper industry was last month hit by another dramatic fall in revenue.
According to preliminary figures from Standard Media Index, newspapers saw adspend fall by 26.3% in April compared to the same period in 2016.
The plummeting revenues are a major factor in radical cost cutting programs currently unfolding at Fairfax Media and News Corp.
If these data are real Fairfax is lucky to have any buyer at all.
Holy Crap! Demoralising for Newspapers, Magazines and “other”? Can you elaborate please Tim.
Hi Ghost of Limewire,
I’m afraid I’m not sure what “other” consists of. Postcards, catalogues?
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Wow, the rate of decline is accelerating markedly. This, coupled with ongoing circulation declines, makes it hard to see how the mastheads would hold any value for a potential buyer – other than as a marketing/distribution vehicle for Domain. In which case why not just make it a free sheet to maximize distribution and have Domain effectively subsidize it?
“SMI covers advertising spend by media agencies on behalf of their clients, but does not include direct advertisers.”
So the rivers of real estate gold captured by Domain would not be captured?
They would not. Even so the year on year data in SMI is like for like. Disturbing.
Interesting, 22% drop in SMI YOY means 20% drop in ad volume not editorial. Hey, just saying.
Means, while some people have less to do others will have more to do.
We all know how it ended for Yertle.
I must work for the only magazine in Australia that is putting its rates up for FY 2017 -2018 because I keep going over budget. The advertising sales budget has been increased over the past 5 years and we still go over budget. I do scratch my head when I see these sorts of things happening. we print nearly 1M mags bi monthly so not some small niche product either.
Anyone unfortunate enough to be working in the depressing newspaper industry will know that the bean counters rule the day. Along with a skills exodus (they’re the lucky ones) , stale lazy managements more interested in their bonuses to “manage the declines via cost cutting” than real innovation. As anyone picking up a flimsy and error ridden newspaper today will know, it’s a swindle.