Folio:’s survey of CEOs at business-to-business magazines looks at the state of B2B publishing. It asks where revenue will be coming from and what CEOs are planning for 2006 and beyond. The report says publishers are starting to see revenue “from what were just pie-in-the-sky opportunities a few years ago.” At the same time, though, print is far from dead:
Over the next year, publishers aren’t just expecting print to stabilize but many believe it will be a driving force at their companies. Sixty-nine percent of respondents say they expect increased revenue from new print advertisers, while 55 percent say they expect more revenue from existing print advertisers.Some other survey highlights:
- Print advertising now represents a smaller percentage of revenue, although it is still the largest source of revenue (62.6 percent in 2005).
- Online revenue increased only slightly, from 5.1 percent to 6.3 percent.
- 35% of the survey's respondents said online was their fastest growing revenue source, up from 34 percent in 2004.
- 34% percent said print was their fastest growing revenue stream in 2005.
- 44% of respondents sid they planned to develop a new ancillary service in 2006.
- 29% percent said they expected to acquire another company.
- 27% are planning to sell all or parts of their company this year.
The article quotes Stephen Davis, vice president and group publisher of SRDS and chairman of the American Business Media Publisher’s Committee, as saying “The significant increase in profitability will likely result in the stronger players opening up their wallets a bit (via staffing, acquisition and/or new product development).”
