One year ago, Sally Hampton wrote in this column, “While the earthquake [that was Covid] shook our industry to its foundations, it also exposed just how resilient and adaptable we can be.”
Well, 2021 has been another rollercoaster year… and guess what, consumer appetite for content has remained strong, for those publishers who have marketed their products successfully: through subscription, through audience development and, increasingly, clever use of data. It has also been a really hot market for M&A activity.
Looking ahead, what’s been hot will get even hotter.
After another year where many publishers have seen enormous success in subscriptions, I expect this model to be amplified. Not for all publishers, but for the majority cohort, whose product is strong, whose understanding of their audiences is laser sharp and who have put in place solid tech, data and marketing capabilities.
The battle will hot up for attention… eyeballs for advertising and partnership revenues, and increasingly, highly valuable, deeply engaged, audiences who will pay to unlock content and who will stay sticky.
There is so much content, so many niches and so much competing content on the web, and the big scale platforms, in particular TV streaming, get more traction by making it easy for customers to understand exactly what they’re getting and putting in place really compelling value propositions. Publishers who do this well, are seeing strong success and I expect to see this further amplified as publishers create scaled businesses utilising a common platform. Look out for plays into digital subscriptions and memberships in the consumer market; curation of audiences deep into verticals; and more partnerships and more innovation.
More M&A activity is also expected, following on from a wide variety of deals in 2021… subscription businesses, data based businesses and platform businesses will be in high demand.
Two main threats will continue: the tightrope walk to give air and oxygen to multiple new opportunities while continuing to drive existing revenue streams hard in the face of higher inflation and a hot market for key talent; and a plethora of strong competition for share of wallet from other media formats and platforms: TV, film, radio, podcasts etc.
That said, there is a huge opportunity for publishers who really understand their markets and are hyper-connected to what their customers and readers are looking for in this fast changing world.
Talented writers and photographers, people that understand audiences, SEO and marketing, data powerhouses who have the ability to measure and drive key insights… coupled with a passion for content and learning what audiences really want; these are the people who will succeed in 2022 and beyond, through innovating hard and fast, pivoting when needed.
There is a huge opportunity for publishers who really understand their markets and are hyper-connected to what their customers and readers are looking for.
This article was first published in the Publishing Partners Guide (PPG) 2022, which is published and distributed by InPublishing. You can register to receive InPublishing magazine here and view the digital edition of the PPG here.
