The latest Digital Publishers Revenue Index (DPRI) from the Association of Online Publishers and Deloitte covering Q2 this year found that total revenues across the 13 digital publishers surveyed grew by an average of 3.4 percent year-on-year. While advertising revenues continue to struggle, the results suggest that publishers’ efforts to diversify their revenue streams are paying off. However, this growth wasn’t distributed equally across all 13 publishers — only seven reported revenue growth in Q2.
Looking across the nine revenue streams measured in the DPRI, seven saw year-on-year growth. Digital audio saw the fastest growth, up 72.9 percent year-on-year, though it’s still a relatively small source of income overall at around 4.5 percent on average. Subscription revenues meanwhile were up by 11.3 percent. In this year’s Q1 DPRI, subscription revenue overtook display advertising as the largest revenue source across the 13 publishers as a whole, though in Q2, it was back down in second place.
Video revenues also continued to grow, up 11.6 percent year-on-year. Audio growth and video growth go somewhat hand in hand, as publisher investments in podcasts provide a bank of both audio and video content to monetise. Meanwhile sponsorship revenues, the third largest revenue stream on average, grew by 15.1 percent.
Display advertising revenues meanwhile continued to fall, down by 7.4 percent year-on-year. Recruitment, the only other revenue line to drop year-on-year, fell by 90.5 percent.
New products and more scale
For the time being, these results suggest that digital publishers’ moves to grow revenues beyond display advertising are helping drive growth overall.
“Premium publishers sit on the fault lines of the tectonic disruptions to media consumption and monetisation on the open web that we see today,” said Richard Reeves, managing director of the AOP. “It’s a testament to their resilience and adaptability that we continue to report revenue growth regardless. With far more categories growing than shrinking, we also see proof that a portfolio approach to revenue streams pays off in protecting the bottom line from the wider market’s ups and downs.”
It’s not surprising, therefore, that investing in new products remains a big strategic focus. All survey respondents agreed that new products will be a top priority for their business over the next 12 months. All also agreed that cost reduction will be a major focus over that same period.
Expansion through acquisition has also emerged as a common plan of action, with all respondents citing it as a strategic priority over the next 12 months. This is a significant change since Q1 this year, when just 25 percent of respondents gave that same answer.
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