Publishers look to online content to increase revenue

According to a survey of most UK publishers, revenue earned around online paid-for content is set to rise (see chart). This dovetails with a finding that about half the respondents expect revenue from print copy sales and print display ads to fall.

Publishers look to online content to increase revenue

However, while publishers look to generate more revenue from paid online content, the general drift towards more free content continues, as 41% of publishers plan to up the amount of free content online and only 14% are increasing their paid-for content. Most generate a relatively small amount of online revenue - 80% said 20% or less of total turnover comes from online activities.

In other findings, 44% of publishers are seeing turnover rise year on year, while only 16% find that turnover is static. However, 26% claim staff numbers will reduce over the next year.

The survey by Wessenden Marketing interviewed 187 publishing companies representing 911 consumer magazines, 855 B2B magazines and newsletters, 413 newspapers and 1,056 websites.