Commentary

GroupM: Print Media Capped At $10 Billion In Ad Revenue, Even With Digital

  • by December 3, 2020
Media agency GroupM this week bolstered the argument that publishers need to strengthen subscription revenue with its revised forecast on global advertising spending.

"Neither the magazine nor newspaper sectors will ever exceed $10 billion in ad revenue in their current forms, even including existing digital properties," GroupM said. "This is not only due to competition from pure-play digital media owners, but also disinvestment in content and a limited tolerance for diminished profit margins among publishers.”

Excluding political ads, the agency expects magazines to see a 20% decline in ad revenue to $8.7 billion this year, while newspapers will experience a 30% drop to $8.8 billion, with the pandemic having a disproportionately negative effect on print media.
“There are still positive stories to tell, particularly for titles that shifted their revenue-generating activity toward digital media, emphasized subscription revenue streams or pursued national or global audiences," according to its report. "But overall, the legacy print publishers are likely to experience ongoing declines, even when compared to the unusually challenging year that was 2020.”
Describing digital as a "bright spot in an otherwise dark year for the industry," GroupM forecast that spending on pure-play digital advertising will grow 5.4% this year to $110 billion, not counting political ads that helped to lift some segments of the media industry. This year's growth rate is less than one-third of last year's 17% gain in digital.
GroupM revised its estimate for U.S. ad spending, forecasting that it this year will decline 8.8% to $214.6 billion, not including political advertising. That's a more optimistic view than its June forecast, when the agency expected a 13% contraction as pandemic lockdowns caused a steep decline in economic activity. With political ad spending of $14 billion, the total decline will be 3.9% to $228.1 billion this year. 
In addition, GroupM's estimates for a contraction in magazine and newspaper ad spending are consistent with those from WARC, though the researcher did foresee spending on print ads stabilizing next year.
With the prospect of flat or declining advertising revenue, publishers are most likely to increase the efforts to boost reader revenue from digital subscriptions.

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3 comments about "GroupM: Print Media Capped At $10 Billion In Ad Revenue, Even With Digital".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, December 3, 2020 at 8:08 a.m.

    Rob, what the Group M report doesn't say---I gather---is how much of the digital ad spend is attained via websites belonging to traditional media---network TV, local TV, TV and radio stations, magazines and newspapers. These take in many billions of ad dollars and when such sums are deleted from the overall digital total, it shrinks, considerably.

  2. Gregg Rogers from Equativ (formerly Smart Ad Server), December 3, 2020 at 10:24 a.m.

    Ed, I believe the full report buckets under 'total pure play internet' - Go to link below and scrol to pgs 12-13. Also breaks out the other forecasted media chs.

    https://dmx9040v9xyo8.cloudfront.net/uploads/2020/11/groupmusadvertisingforecast_Dec2020.pdf

  3. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, December 3, 2020 at 11 a.m.

    Thanks, Gregg. It seems that they did not provide the breakdown I was looking for. We estimate that upwards of $8-10 billion was spent on traditional media websites and, if one includes OTT, this figure is considerably higher.Also,  most of these dollars were for straight ads, not search. If the latter is deleted from the digital total, it drops by about $55 billion.

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