Amidst a climate of geopolitical unrest, evolving dynamics with tech platforms, and the challenges presented by generative AI, the latest WAN-IFRA study reveals a surprisingly positive outlook among news publishers for the upcoming year and beyond.
The World Press Trends Outlook 2023-2024 report indicates that a slight majority of the news executives polled (55%) are optimistic about the forthcoming 12 months. This sentiment of hopefulness modestly increases when considering the longer term, with nearly 60% (58%) of respondents expressing confidence in their organization’s future over the next three years.
This represents a notable shift in attitude from the previous year, during which a majority of publishers expressed a gloomy outlook for the imminent future, according to WAN-IFRA.
The report from WAN-IFRA highlights several key insights, including:
- Expected growth in revenue: Publishers are anticipating a notable increase in their revenues, forecasting a 15.2% growth for 2023 and nearly 19% for 2024. This optimism is largely attributed to the fruitful outcomes of diversifying revenue sources and continued investment in new financial avenues.
- Dominance of advertising revenue: Advertising remains the primary revenue source for publishers, making up almost half (43%) of the projected income over the coming year, while income from readers accounts for just over a third.
- Print’s sustained importance: Despite the digital shift, print mediums, through advertising and circulation, are still expected to contribute to over half (57%) of the publishers’ total revenue.
- Investment focus on AI: An overwhelming majority of publishers (87%) have identified AI and automation as their top investment priority for the next year, with data analytics and intelligence following closely at 86%.
The “World Press Trends Outlook 2023-2024,” is available for its members to download for free here.
Additional Sources
- New World Press Trends report showcases publishers’ positive outlook amid uncertainty
- WAN-IFRA World Press Trends and Outlook: Five insights from 15 years of reports
- World Press Trends Outlook 2023-2024
- Latest World Press Trends report released
Note: This blog post’s header image was generated with the help of DALL- E on ChatGPT 3.5.