Despite shrinking budgets, declining circulations and a historic spike in closures across the country in recent years, publishers are optimistic about the state of the industry in 2020, according to a recent survey conducted by magazine industry news site Folio.
Folio’s report, which surveyed the chief executives of major U.S. media companies, found that nearly half (43 percent) of the publishing chiefs polled anticipate that revenues will grow by single digits at their organizations in 2020, according to the survey. Meanwhile, about a quarter (26 percent) predict revenues will remain roughly flat, while the same number (26 percent) believe revenues will actually grow by more than 10 percent. Only about four percent of media CEOs expect revenues to decline.
 CEOS of major U.S. media companies were asked: which platforms will fuel audience growth for your company in 2020? |
Not surprisingly, most media executives (58 percent) expect that growth to come primarily from digital advertising. Events, conferences and trade shows were listed as another major income source (43 percent), followed by marketing services for advertisers (38 percent). Print advertising made an appearance at fourth place (36 percent). Subscriptions and single-copy sales (both print and digital), sales of other products (such e-commerce), affiliate marketing, awards programs and licensing bottomed out the list, at 23 percent, 19 percent, 10 percent, seven percent and five percent, respectively.
More than a third of media CEOs (36 percent) also predicted single-digit audience growth for their publications this year, while about the same number (35 percent) anticipated growth being roughly flat. More than a quarter (28 percent) said they expected to see growth by more than 10 percent, while only about two percent anticipate a decline in readership/viewership.
A positive sign for such a layoff-heavy industry, a majority (26 percent) of media executives said bringing aboard new talent would be their most significant source of investment in 2020. This was followed by expenditures on technology (18 percent), investments in new digital products or platforms (16 percent), print (13 percent) and events (12 percent).
Data for Folio’s “Investment and Growth Survey” interviewed CEOs at eight media and news organizations (Active Interest Media, Endeavor Business Media, Government Executive Media Group, Meredith Corp., The Nation, Questex, SANDOW and Trusted Media Brands).
Underscore Media, a new creator-led media venture dedicated to New York sports, is built around three established New York sports personalities, Sal Licata, Jimmy Traina, and John Jastremski.
McClatchy, which owns 29 daily papers across 14 states (including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star), launches a wave of layoffs that extends to at least 13 of those papers... The Toledo Blade, which was founded in 1835, is set to shut down on Dec. 31, unless owner Block Communications manages to find a buyer for it... A bill awaiting approval by California governor Gavin Newsom would give local newsrooms a boost. 
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
