Mediaboss Marketing

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/19/2012 12:01:00 AM The growing popularity of accessing news on mobile devices, online and social media is increasing the consumption and demand for news content, according to the newly released 2012 State of the News Media report by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence (PEJ) in Journalism.

But news organizations are still struggling to make money off these digital distribution platforms, in part because tech giants are capturing a significant portion of the money being spent, with five tech companies grabbing 68% of all digital ad revenue, the study reports, citing researcher from eMarketer.

In addition, growing digital consumption and increases in digital revenue are still not making up for loses in traditional revenue. The PEJ study found increased audiences for online, network TV, local TV, audio, and cable TV, with magazines remaining fairly constant and newspapers seeing declines. But it also concluded that rising audiences for network TV and local TV did not translate into increased revenue.

In fact, revenue declined for both network TV (down 3.7%) and local TV (down 6.7%). PEJ noted that on-air ad revenue for local TV grew in 2011 but was still 10% lower than it was in 2007 and that on-air ads still accounted for 85% of the total revenue.

"Our analysis suggests that news is becoming more important and pervasive part of people's lives," PEJ director Tom Rosenstiel noted in a statement announcing Pew's ninth annual look at the state of the news media. "But it remains unclear who will benefit economically from this growing appetite for news."

The new study contains extensive data on the spread of digital media and consumption of news on digital devices, including new national surveys on how news is consumed on different devices and the impact of social media.

Both the surveys and outside data cited in the report found that digital delivery and the growing popularity of smart phones and tablets was driving increased consumption of news.

Citing data from the mobile analytics firm Localytics the study argues that people were using "mobile devices for news more often and for longer sessions" and that mobile users "may be getting more news more often."

Overall monthly unique users at the top news sites grew by 17% in 2011, according to data cited from Nielsen Online. Most of these major news sites (17 of 25) are still run by legacy news organizations.

Growing digital consumption has also boosted both online and mobile ad markets. The study notes that online advertising grew by 23% in 2011. One segment of the online ad pie, display advertising grew by 24% bounce in 2011 to $12.4 billion, according to data from eMarketer cited in the report.

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PEJ: News Orgs Still Struggle With Digital Revenue