Digital Lifescapes

At the close of 2012, nearly 200 million tablets will have shipped worldwide since 2009 and an additional 1 billion tablets are forecast to ship over the next 5 years, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. New research that explores the impact a media tablet has on the daily life of a U.S. consumer shows that 22 percent of users spend $50 or more per month and 9 percent spend $100 or more -- that's much higher than spending levels observed by typical smartphone users. While tablets are most recognized as digital media consumption devices, there are a growing number of other common use-cases that extend beyond reading magazines or watching streaming video content. "Tablets are quickly becoming the go-to transaction screen within the home," says Jeff Orr, mobile devices senior practice director at ABI Research . Spending on-device of physical and virtual goods has not yet impacted retail storefronts -- which are already concerned about their venues t...

The ongoing transition to digital publishing and online content distribution has created a potentially significant upside opportunity for forward-thinking publishers. But what are the key trends in this rapidly evolving marketplace? How are electronic newspapers and magazines being monetized? What role do digital newsstands and aggregators play in marketing eNewspapers and eMagazines? And, how are publishers, advertisers and merchants addressing consumer demand for ecommerce capabilities on tablet editions? These are the questions that eMarketer considered for their latest market study of the American ePublishing sector. Theoretically, the rising adoption of tablets, smartphones and ereaders point to a favorable business climate for publishers of digital newspapers and magazines -- as well as for other stakeholders in the publishing industry. Despite this momentum though, the traditional publishing industry faces numerous hurdles in the quest to fully monetize its digital con...

2011 will be remembered as yet another dismal year for most of the technology trade publishing sector. Connected Planet, a U.S.-based telecom industry magazine with an accomplished track-record which spanned across a century, ceased operations. It was one more example of where advertising revenue could no longer sustain a legacy print publishing business -- even after it's been rebooted as a lower-cost online-only publication. This phenomenon, the prospect of prolonged low profitability, will surely claim more publication closures and traditional media company victims in 2012, but the broader market outlook is apparently not as bleak -- from a top-line advertising revenue perspective. Overall U.S. online advertising spending will growth above 20 percent again this year -- to reach nearly $40 billion, according to the latest market study by eMarketer . Double-digit growth is forecast through 2014, when U.S. online ad spending will reach $52.8 billion. In 2016, eMarketer opt...

According to the latest market study by Juniper Research , annual revenues derived from eNewspapers that are delivered to portable digital devices will exceed $1.1 billion by 2016 -- with publishers increasingly adopting subscription-based applications to counteract their falling print publication sales. The Juniper market study noted the surge in Apple iPad adoption led a number of newspaper publishers to move beyond standalone smartphone apps towards more integrated digital media strategies. Companies such as News International have begun offering a single subscription price enabling access to The Times across all digital platforms. It observed that transitioning to a paywall-based model would almost certainly result in a substantial decline in the digital media user base. Despite this, for many publishers the revenues that accrued from a moderate user base paying a modest subscription charge would outweigh the initial loss of CPM (cost per mille)-based advertising rev...

Online advertising was predicted to gain share of U.S. marketer spending by more than 10 percentage points between 2009 and 2015. However, the current spending on digital media -- including internet and mobile -- has not yet risen significantly, according to the latest assessment by eMarketer . Among the major media of television, internet, radio, mobile, newspapers and magazines, U.S. adults still spend the most time each day with TV. eMarketer estimates adults watched television for 42.9 percent of the time they spent each day with those media in 2010, and ad dollars align closely, at 42.7 percent. The internet, by contrast, took up 25.2 percent of U.S. adult daily media time in 2010, but received just 18.7 percent of marketer's ad budget. "Those of us focused on the internet channel have complained for years that it hasn't been getting its fair share of media dollars based on time spent," said eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey. "However, the precise extent of ...

The traditional advertising industry is not the place to be right now -- unless you have a very high tolerance for stress. eMarketer reports that the decline in overall ad spending is not only continuing, it is getting steeper on a month-to-month basis. As an example, ZenithOptimedia revised their ad spending forecasts downward. After forecasting a 6.9 percent decline in advertising spending worldwide in April, they're now estimating a drop of 8.5 percent. Zenith analysts predict a recovery to begin in 2010, but not in North America. Q1 spending was lower than expected and Q2 outlays continued to slide. Zenith says total worldwide spending for 2009 will be $456.5 billion, down from nearly $500 billion last year. Few markets are growing, such as China and India. Zenith predicts ad spending in China will increase by 5.4 percent in 2009, exceeding the UK to become the world's fourth-largest ad market. The Internet is the only medium that will enjoy spending growth this year -- ris...

According to eMarketer, when the American Business Media (ABM) Annual Conference was held recently in Amelia Island, Florida, most of the speeches were optimistic. Reviewing the financial performances of business-to-business (B2B) publishers in print, online, events and data from 2006 to 2008, Richard Mead, managing director of The Jordan, Edmiston Group, said, "This has all been part of a controlled evolution." That's a little like saying driving a car off a cliff is all part of a controlled stop. With equal denial of recent industry performance Gary Fitzgerald, CEO of Meister Media Worldwide and chairman of the ABM, said, "It's a time of great opportunity." Unlike the spoken words, however, eMarketer says that the data presented at the conference was more sobering. According to the ABM, B2B media ad pages declined 30 percent in the first two months of this year. And last year was not good, either. Looking first at the B2B publisher's largest source of ...