In its 2017 World Press Trends study, WAN-IFRA estimates that 56% of newspapers’ overall revenue came from circulation sales (print and digital) in 2016.
“The shift from advertising to reader-based revenue is reshaping the fundamentals of our industry,” said WAN-IFRA CEO Vincent Peyrègne who presented the key findings from the global study at the 69th World News Media Congress and 24th World Editors Forum in Durban, South Africa.
“We have entered a pivotal moment,” he continued, “and more than ever our focus needs to be on our audience and producing high-quality, engaging journalism.”
Trust is the new currency
Interestingly, this trend continues to emerge at a time when survey after survey reveals that people around the world are not only losing their trust in media, but societal institutions in general. “The decline in trust is the biggest risk we face as an industry, and all our efforts must be with the aim of getting it back,” Peyrègne said.
“We used to trade in attention. But trust is our new currency,” Peyrègne said. “Any decline in trust erodes the foundation of our business: credible, first-rate journalism.”
The World Press Trends survey includes data from more than 70 countries, accounting for more than 90 percent of the global industry’s value. The data is provided by dozens of national newspaper and news media associations, with additional information coming from global suppliers Zenith, IPSOS, PwC and Chartbeat.
The audience-centric era
A fundamental shift in the newspaper business model took place two years ago, when reader revenue became the biggest source of revenue for news publishers.
Global digital circulation revenues grew by 28% from 2015 to 2016, and a full 300% from 2012 to 2016, with the trend expected to continue.
Despite that, total global newspaper revenues fell 2.1% in 2016 from a year earlier, and are down 7.8% over the last five years.
Advertising revenues continue to decline in most markets, although there are notable exceptions in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and rates of decline vary greatly between different markets.
World Press Trends, the leading source of newspaper data and trends globally, has been published by WAN-IFRA since 1989. Inquiries to: Teemu Henriksson, Coordinator, World Press Trends: teemu.henriksson@wan-ifra.org
