The Digital Publishers Report - Volume 1

Do you want to crack the code on what it takes to be successful in digital publishing? Are you passionate to grow your digital publication? The Digital Publishers Report tracks the publishing practices of digital publishers, allowing you to benchmark your site’s performance and understand technological trends in the industry.

By State of Digital Publishing and Small Business Trends

About the Report

With revenue from branded digital content to grow three fold by 2021, and digital ad rates on the rise according to multiple sources, this report highlights the critical success factors you need to know.

The Digital Publishers Report tracks the publishing practices of a representative sample (“Tracking Group”) of 100 digital publishers.   

The benchmarks and data in this report are provided as a resource for digital website publishers. By understanding the best practices of their peers, digital publishers are better positioned to consider improvements and adjustments to their own sites.

The goal of this Report is to present information that website publishers can refer to when deciding on matters such as:

  • site enhancements

  • technology choices

  • monetization techniques

  • content strategies

  • audience development

  • social media strategies

  • search engine strategies

This Volume 1 – 2019 Report is the inaugural report on this topic.  Each quarter we will update the information, and add additional benchmarking factors, sites and best practices to track.

Download the Report

Complete the form below to receive your copy and for future updates.

Recommended for you
  What’s Happening: As voice technologies grow in popularity, they are likely to move beyond home and personal use to become embedded in every aspect of consumers’ lives. The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism took a look and how these devices are currently being used, and their potential for news in the future.   Why it Matters: Voice-activated speakers powered by intelligent assistants, such as Amazon, Alexa and Google Assistant, are growing faster than the smartphone and tablets at a similar stage. They are projected to move beyond home use to become used in every aspect of our lives in much the same way smartphones did, based on the predictors. The Reuters report by Senior Research Associate Nic Newman is based on nationally representative surveys in the United Kingdom and United States, as well as interviews and focus groups with smart speaker users and eighteen leading publishers such as the New York Times and the BBC. The key findings of the report include:
  • The use of voice-activated speakers has roughly doubled in the past year in the US, UK and Germany.
  • Smart speakers are replacing remote control devices, in a bid to cut digital clutter.
  • Smart speakers are most popular with 35-44 year olds’, but also with older age groups.
  • Amazon’s Alexa devices dominate both the US and UK markets, clearly outselling Google Home and Apple Homepod speakers.
  Digging Deeper:   Please Note: To read this in full, please join our Membership plan. For existing subscribers Sign in to your account.
What’s Happening: As legacy news revenues continue to decline and large technology companies like Google, Facebook and Apple taking the lion’s share of digital advertising revenues, pay models have become an increasingly important part of the business of digital news.   Why It Matters Newspaper subscription models are slowly increasing, but most news outlets still offer completely free access to news. More than two-thirds of leading newspapers (69%) across the EU and US are operating some kind of paywall, a trend that has increased since 2017. However, fears about paywalls limiting access to online news are “overblown,” according to the new Reuters research. Nic Newman of the Reuters Institute found that 81% of publishing executives say digital advertising remains a key focus of income, followed by subscriptions (78%) and native advertising (75%).   Digging Deeper   Please Note: To read this in full, please join our Membership plan. For existing subscribers Sign in to your account.
Mobile video consumption continues its upward surge, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. By 2019, video will make up 80 percent of all internet traffic, according to Cisco. In the second quarter of 2018, smartphone-only video starts topped 50% for the first time globally — surging 9.8%, the largest increase in five quarters. This finding in the Q2 2018 Global Video Index Report by Ooyala occurred as mobile video consumption combined with season finales on television shows, sports season finales, and new content initiatives. “More content creators, seeing the trend toward greater long-form video consumption on mobile devices — a trend we’ve been noting since last year — are now developing content concurrently for multiple platforms and are transitioning beyond snackable mobile-only content,” said Jim O’Neill, Ooyala principal analyst. The 50% smartphone video starts represented a 13.2% year-over-year change. There were a number of other key findings by Ooyala by region:
  • North America: Total long-form time watched on smartphones topped 75%, mobile plays increased to 56% of all video starts (up 4% year-over-year and up 14% since Q2 2016), and mobile starts exceeded 50% for the past eight quarters.
  • Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA): Mobile video hit 54% of all starts, up from 49% a year ago.
  • Asia-Pacific (APAC): Mobile video’s share of all plays was 74% — the highest ever, and up 64% in two years.
  • Latin America: Mobile starts topped 65%, an increase of 20% year-over-year and 38% over two years.
Mobile video is just getting stronger and stronger, and the 2018 Q2 report indicates that Q3 numbers will see an even more massive uptick. There is an unprecedented consumer demand for mobile, and content distributors need to take advantage of this. Mobile video is a space for incredible opportunity for digital publishers — especially in long-form content. Please Note: To read this in full, please join our Yearly plan. For existing subscribers Sign in to your account.

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