Download Six signs of positive media news

12/05/2017
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Six signs of positive media news
Submitted by: Print Power 28/04/2014
Jeff Bezos among the journalists at The Wall Street Journal
The last couple of months show some positive and optimistic signs for the media and print industry. It seems that with the
improvement of the economy media owners and users have a different perspective to media.
1. Technology meets media
Technology-savy investors in the US are funding existing media companies. Probably the most significant is the acquisition by
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos of The Wall Street Journal for €180,9 mio. The founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, launched First Look
Media with an investment of €180,9 mio. His initiative starts with star-reputation journalists. Also in the US venture capitalist
companies invested huge sums in media projects, a total of €217,8 mio is reported.
The re-birth of Newsweek in print is an example of an insight that is becoming more important; the print edition delivers the web
better exposure. As Marcus Rich (CEO IPC) demonstrated with research 50 per cent of the readers of print advertisements visit the
brand's website. And celebs and politicians like to be on printed covers in the newsstand.
2. Online brands discovering the printed catalogue
Probably the most striking example is Porter, the new global magazine of the online luxury fashion shop Net-a-Porter. The fact that
their online shoppers are heavy users of printed magazines made the company decide to launch its own magazine. The Net--Porter move underlines an expression made some years ago that print is very much like "Haute couture" (luxurious) and the other
channels like "Pret-a-porter" (high street fashion). Many more brands are now using print to support the brand.
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3. Continued growth of content marketing
Paid, owned and earned media is on the agenda of many marketers, advertising and media professionals. An increasing number of
them are investing in creating own media. Albeit online, via dedicated websites with own content, or via customer magazines, they
all understand that providing relevant content produces a better customer brand experience and will influence customer loyalty. In
the UK, one of the leading content marketing countries, 70 per cent of marketers use content marketing.
4. Direct marketing
It seems like direct mail is used by an increasing number of brands to escape from the digital clutter. Mailings are becoming more
sophisticated as the simple straightforward mailings are subsituted by emails. A shift towards smaller print runs at higher value.
We're receiving an increased number of very creative and more expensive mailings. Appealing to multiple senses, integrating
Augmented Reality or QR codes to increase consumer engagement with the mailing and the brand. The US forecast (Winterberry)
for 2014 confirms the positive trend for direct mail: a 1,1 per cent increase of direct mail (compared to a all media increase of 0,9
per cent).
5. Big data and print
This probably is the most important challenge for media owners. As marketers are obtaining increasingly more data from their
online activities, they need to have comparable data from other channels. With the current metrics in place this has proven to be
difficult if not impossible. The Porter magazine will be an example of the cross-fertilisation of big data (from the online activities)
and content published in the printed magazine. An omnichannel marketing approach will require all data to come together on one
platform to make it operational for marketers. The online world will need to help the print media world. The upcoming newspaper
advertising hackathon is an example of the kind of activities that will merge the two worlds.
6. Slow down of budget shifts
Over the last couple of years there has been a shift in marketing and advertising budgets from traditional media (TV, magazines,
newspapers) to digital media (mobile, display, search).The latest CMO study shows that forecast of digital media spending
increase are at their lowest level since years. Investments in tradional media are flat after years of decline.
A study from the Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) in the US reveals that one-quarter of global marketers is planning to reallocate existing budgets to digital. This 25 per cent compares to 39 per cent shift in 2013. The overall sense is to maintain current
budget allocation and not to further increase digital spending. In Europe this figure will be different from country to country as the
use of digital differs a lot. UK figures from the IPA's Bellwether report show that the net increase for traditional media is higher than
for the Internet (11,5% vs. 8,5%). Dependent on the stage of introduction, growth of digital media might be higher.
The 2014 outlook for the media industry is probably better than that of last four years. It will be an interesting year.
Ulbe Jelluma | Print Power