WAN-IFRA report: Paying news audience grows

WAN-IFRA has released its World Press Trends 2019, which analyses data collected from WAN-IFRA’s annual survey of more than 50 countries, in addition to insights and data from its global partners, including ZenithOptimedia, IPSOS, PwC, Chartbeat, Parse.ly and IO Technologies.

The findings of the 30th edition of the World Press Trends report underscore the ongoing conundrum of the industry: Overall global revenues in 2018 continued to shrink as did some newsrooms, yet paying audiences and demand for quality news continue to increase, according to WAN-IFRA.

This year's analysis was conducted by François Nel, University of Central Lancashire, Coral Milburn-Curtis, University of Oxford, and Castulus Kolo, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Munich.

The data is compiled in an interactive database and annual report, both available free to WAN-IFRA members.

Among the highlights:

• Global revenues (print & digital) fell by 3 percent (YoY 2018) with much of the drop coming from print advertising revenue (down 7 percent). Digital advertising revenues rose by 5 percent and are expected to rise in 2019.

• Paying news audiences rose by 0.5 percent, to 640 million per day in 2018. Almost 54 percent of newspapers’ revenue is generated by circulation sales.

• WAN-IFRA estimates that print revenues still make up around 86 percent of news publishers’ revenue. In 2018 print circulation fell 1 percent globally.

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