News print ad spend falls

News media print advertising spend has fallen despite an increase in trust in news media, while digital ad spend has increased, according to the latest News Media Index (NMI) figures, including data from Standard Media Index (SMI).

Print spend in news media has declined 15 per cent from its 2016 Q4 level of $433m to $367m, despite the sector’s advertising revenue hitting a year high in the fourth quarter at $519.8m, fuelled by advertising for the Queensland election and Marriage Equality debate.

Australia’s news media sector achieved $2.02bn in advertising revenue for the 12 months to December 31 and remains the third largest media sector based on advertising revenue.

Digital ad spend increased 8.5 per cent from $123.3m to $133.9m, the only segment to grow, with Newspapers Inserted Magazines (NIMs) fell 7.8 per cent from $20.4m to $18.7m.

NewsMediaWorks says, “According to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer, trust in platforms such as Google and Facebook has fallen by 2 per cent to 51 per cent. This change has created an 8 per cent difference between the two – the biggest gap in seven years.

“This difference is even larger in Australia. While 52 per cent of people trust journalism, only 35 per cent trust search and social platforms. The difference of 17 per cent is one of the biggest in the world, equal sixth with France and the UK.

“The results mirror Galaxy research commissioned by NewsMediaWorks that showed print news media is more highly trusted for content and advertising than other mediums. Social media was the only media type studied to return a negative trust score.”

Digital spend from direct advertisers jumped by 31.8 per cent to $85m in the quarter.

Peter Miller, CEO, NewsMediaWorks says, “Trust has been a key issue for advertisers in 2017 and will continue to be this year, which is why we have seen brands choosing news media, particularly for their digital campaigns, because the trusted environment that our publishers offer is unmatched for both content and ads . Advertisers are assured of a brand safe environment that reaches 90 per cent of the population every month and that is a compelling proposition.

“Direct advertisers continue to have greater confidence in the effectiveness of news media than the media agency market. The fact is that news media continues to attract highly engaged audiences who trust not only the news media content but also the ads.”

Jane Ractliffe, managing director, SMI says the data shows how news media is remaining highly relevant for direct advertisers, with that market growing its share of total News Media ad spend by 3.8 percentage points to 56.3 per cent.

“This quarter we have seen especially strong growth from the Direct advertiser market into national print titles, with the total spend from those advertisers growing 13.5 per cent from the same quarter a year ago.

“And the fact that in the past year Direct ad spend has only dropped back 4 per cent across all news media publishing platforms shows how engaged these advertisers are with brand-friendly news media.’’

The revenue data is taken from NewsMediaWorks’ members, News Corp Australia, Fairfax Media, West Australian Newspapers and Community Newspaper Group, WA, who represent around 90 per cent of the news media sector.

NMI Dec 2017

Source: NewsMediaWorks

Comment below to have your say on this story.

If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.  

Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter

Leave a comment:

Your email address will not be published. All fields are required

Advertisement

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.
Advertisement