Print Publishers Uncertain About Their Digital Future

The majority of print periodical publishers surveyed by GartnerG2 either foresee no change in the relationship between print and online or don’t know what the future holds. They aren’t optimistic about the future of online advertising as a means to increase revenue. Only 27% of them foresee any increase in online advertising revenue in the next five years. Publishers at independent periodical were the most optimistic, publishers at chain newspapers were the most pessimistic.

GartnerG2 Research Director Allen Weiner, who we know is a veteran analyst of the publishing industry, says that the periodical publishing industry still lacks a clear understanding of future print and digital synergies and a framework to face its digital future. He notes that the vast majority of publishers of newspapers or magazines:

Lack online registration systems, which are required to support targeted advertising and personalized content;
Fewer than half of publishing conglomerates (owners across publishing and broadcast) and syndicates bundle print and online together, thereby losing cross-selling and marketing opportunities;
Fewer than half of all publishing companies employ a unified strategy for print and online ad sales, which, again, leads to missed opportunities and a duplication of effort. This sends a confusing message to advertisers.

Weiner points out that, in many cases, publishing companies face a “directional disconnect” where top-level management, newsroom/editorial personnel, IT professionals and new media staff each have their own vision for the future. Too many print companies lack a process for blending these visions into a cohesive product plan and development roadmap.

What We Do

Since 1996, the media business consulting firm of Digital Deliverance has provided publishers and broadcasters on four continents with strategic reviews and advice about how to profitably adapt to the epochal changes that computer-mediated technologies have wrought on the media environment and their industries.

Over the years, the firm’s clients have include The New York Times, News Corporation, The Irish Times of Dublin, Dagbladet of Oslo, The Mail & Guardian of Johannesburg, Advance Publications, Critical Mention, MediaNews Group, New Century Network, the Media Development Investment Fund, the National Cancer Institutes, and scores of other media firms that need to adapt to computer-mediated technologies and the rise of Individuated Media.

The managing partner of Digital Deliverance is Vin Crosbie, Adjunct Professor of postgraduate New Media Management at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication, in upstate New York. From 2007 through 2020, he wrote and was the sole instructor of the school’s New Media Business course, a course required for students in the New Media Management master’s degree curriculuum, an elective course for Ph.D. students, and a permission-only course for selected undergraduates and graduate students.

Digital Deliverance is incorporated as a limited liability company in the U.S. state of Connecticut, where it is based in the city of Norwich, Connecticut.