RBM is a Digital Marketing Agency and has a longstanding relationship with some of the publishing industry’s most venerable brands. Working for these clients has revealed to them unique insights into online content consumption: from the fluffiest entertainment to the weightiest news analysis. How content is discovered, bought and sold is rapidly changing—the effects of these changes affect all marketers.
It comes as no surprise that in the last five years the print journalism industry has been struggling to find its place in the media marketplace. Print circulation for major US newspapers has fallen steadily over the last decade, and now less than half of US adults read any print edition in a given week.
Yet it’s also important to bear in mind that only in 2010 have interactive advertising spends overtaken print newspaper (not including magazines or other print ad vehicles) amounts at $26B according to the IAB. In comparison, at the beginning of the last decade, newspaper publishing was a $50B business.
Until the advent of the Web, newspapers controlled customer relationships via the newsstand and direct subscriptions. Now, however, two new channels dominate content discovery: search and social media. As a result, a new breed of content has emerged online to take advantage of these channels.
