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What to Think About in 2019 – The Publishing and Media Landscape

Last updated: July 17, 2023

With the start of a new year, it is natural to look back at the previous searching for areas of learning that can contribute to opportunities for growth in the future. An article published by FIPP, the global media network for magazine associations, publishing companies and suppliers drew attention to some of the driving factors that shaped 2018 for the media world. While highlighting a variety of the larger M&As that occurred within the industry, the article also touched on common trends from the year. This article got the gears moving and resulted in a list of trends from the 2018 and what that means for the media and publishing industry in 2019:

The New Model: To Be Acknowledged as the Expert in Whatever Industry You’re Playing In

FIPP’s CEO James Hewes pointed out that consumers want to consume information from sources that they trust and know will be providing them with strong, authentic content. Media companies need to strive to be the thought leader in their industries and use a combination of paid content, live events, and advertising efforts to grow revenue for their business.

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Diversification: Media and publishing companies need to have more diverse offerings for their customers

We are in a time where print and broadcast offerings are beneficial to have, but products and services in the media industry should be so much more than that as well. Companies have started to play in the digital, video, data and analytics, marketing services and events space as well. Customers are looking for interactions beyond basic text, in the form of experiential moments and deep insights.

Using First Party Data in the Right Way

Yes this topic has already been pointed out, but it’s really important. Consumers now more than ever are paranoid about data privacy and their information being protected. Publishers have the opportunity to capitalize on this by leveraging their first-party data in a smart and ethical way. Brands are looking for data that has direct consent from consumers and publishers have that data. By organizing and cleaning first-party data, publishers can position themselves as experts and providers of clean data to brands.

AI and Machine Learning Will Help Market to Segmented Audiences

Subscription based companies such as Netflix and Spotify have started appealing to their consumers by providing suggestions of new content to their users. And these users are noticing. With this new tactic for targeting individual audience members, consumers are being conditioned to expect and enjoy content suggestions from providers. Using AI to specifically target audience members and provide them with information that they are interested in seeing will lead to stronger relationship with customers and more engaged users.

Mobile Usage Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

In a report done by venture capital company Kleiner Perkins, it was called out that digital media usage is at an all-time high for consumers, landing at around 5.9 hours per day. The estimate is that 3.3 of these hours are being spent on mobile devices. This growth in usage of the platform should be inspiration to generate content that is not only aesthetically mobile-friendly, but also easily digestible on mobile devices. Targeted content and shorter, easily consumable pieces are strategies to think about in 2019.

Articles Used to Inspire this Piece:

Digital Publishing Trends: Mary Meeker’s 2018 Report

12 Social Media Trends that Will Impact Your Business in 2019

Top 4 Digital Transformation Trends In Media And Entertainment For 2019

Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash

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