The latest figures from the News Media Index (NMI) show publishers are growing their digital and programmatic share of ad revenue.
Digital news media revenue continues to grow at a faster rate than the market, rising 8.5% to $120 million in the third quarter and outpacing the total agency digital market, which declined by 4.5%.
In addition, programmatic ad revenue jumped by 44.5% in the third quarter to $12.1 million and the sector now attracts 13% of all programmatic revenue in the market.
Australia’s news media sector has reported $2.07 billion in advertising revenue for the 12 months to 30 September.
In print, revenue from newspaper-inserts, such as catalogues, grew by 7.9% in the same quarter.
But the latest results show digital advertising revenue is the only area of increased spend in the news media sector, with print advertising spend down 14.3% and newspaper-inserts falling by 12.4% year on year.
Unlike the monthly SMI data which reports agency only revenue, the quarterly News Media Index reports all print and digital ad revenue to Australia’s largest news media publishers* from both agencies and direct advertisers and is independently verified by SMI.
“The News Media Index shows that publishers are growing their digital and programmatic share of ad revenue as we see a flight to quality, trusted content as concerns over disreputable sites, dubious content and fake news builds momentum," NewsMediaWorks CEO Peter Miller says.
"Advertisers can be guaranteed of brand safety in news media, which is why our publishers are the most trusted media channel for both content and ads.
“It’s instructive that direct advertisers have greater confidence that news media works well, while the media agency market view differs. The fact is that news media continues to deliver large, highly engaged audiences who trust their preferred news source and adjacent advertiser messages.”
SMI AU/NZ managing director Jane Schulze says it's clear that advertisers are voting with their feet to significantly grow their investment on high quality news websites.
“This also means the news media industry continues to lead all media in the transition to a hybrid digital revenue model, with digital representing 23.8% of all news media revenues in the third quarter of 2017, compared to 19.8% for the same quarter a year ago,’’ she said.
*The revenue data is taken from NewsMediaWorks’ foundation members, News Corp Australia, Fairfax Media and West Australian Newspapers who represent around 90% of the news media sector. The latest results include the Community Newspaper Group, WA for the first time.
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