HIGH LEVEL OF OPTIMISM AMONG THE WORLD'S PUBLISHERS FOR 2024
Text taken from the website of the Asociación de Medios de Información (AMI), Spain.
WAN IFRA’s report on world press trends for 2023-2024 shows a high level of optimism among publishers in the face of challenges such as speed of transformation and continuous innovation.
Against a backdrop of geopolitical instability, changing relationships with technology platforms and strategic issues raised by generative artificial intelligence, WAN-IFRA’s annual World Press Trends survey reveals that news publishers are “remarkably optimistic” for this new year ahead and for their future prospects, with challenges and opportunities they are already facing with good results, as the survey reflects.
“Many publishers we spoke to are clearly concerned about the challenges facing the industry and their businesses: the speed of transformation and innovation, diversifying their revenue streams, ensuring a sustainable business model or better understanding and engagement of their audiences, among other issues,” says Dean Roper, Insights director and editor-in-chief of WAN-IFRA. “But it’s clear that a lot of progress has been made on all of these fronts, and others, in recent years to reach this level of optimism. And certainly this varies from region to region, market to market and publisher to publisher.”
This positivity is one of the main conclusions of the World Press Trends Outlook 2023-2024 report, recently published by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). Among the report’s key findings, more than half (55%) of the newspaper executives surveyed for the report said they were optimistic about the next 12 months. Looking ahead, the level of optimism is up slightly, with nearly six in ten respondents (58%) saying they are optimistic about their company’s prospects for the next three years, a clear shift from last year, when most publishers were pessimistic about the near future.
NEARLY 20% GROWTH IN MEDIA REVENUES BY 2024
Another positive finding from the report: publishers estimate their revenues to grow by 15.2% in 2023 and almost 19% in 2024. Much of this confidence is due to the expectation that continued investment in new revenue streams is beginning to pay off.
Respondents also state that advertising is the main source. On average, advertising accounts for almost half (43%) of respondents’ expected revenue over the next 12 months, while reader revenue accounts for just over a third of their revenue.
In addition, the survey also reveals that print continues to prevail. Together, print advertising and circulation generate more than half (57%) of total revenue forecast by respondents.
And as for AI, it is the top area of investment. Nearly all respondents (87%) identified artificial intelligence and automation as the top area of investment for the next 12 months, followed closely by data analytics and intelligence (86%).
“As our latest report demonstrates, publishers are still juggling to preserve significant print and advertising revenues while diversifying their revenue streams and exploring the possibilities offered by digital technologies such as generative artificial intelligence,” says Damian Radcliffe, Carolyn S. Chambers Professor of Journalism at the University of Oregon and author of the central analysis in this edition of World Press Trends. “It’s not easy to navigate this tightrope, but we are seeing examples of success and innovation around the world that can serve as inspiration to publishers large and small across the globe,” Radcliffe concludes.
