The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), which has just distributed its 2014 World Press Trends report to its members, gathered research and news industry experts in Amsterdam on Monday to develop the 2015 edition to reflect the changing face of news media.
World Press Trends, which WAN-IFRA has published annually since 1989, is the primary source of data on the newspaper industry world-wide, with global, regional and national data on newspaper circulation, reach, advertising revenues, digital trends, demographic information and more.
"Our goal is to depict the global newspaper industry through relevant metrics, and to provide insight into the trends that most affect the industry," said Teemu Henriksson, coordinator of World Press Trends. "But the measurements, particularly of digital media, are not standardized, making comparisons difficult. And they continue to evolve as media converge and change,"
The meeting on Monday, held during the World Publishing Expo, gathered researchers, industry experts, news media associations and other partners to discuss the future aims of World Press Trends and how to adjust the data to reflect rapid transformation.
"As newspapers move from print to multi-platform media organisations, the metrics have to be updated accordingly," Mr Henriksson said. "While the industry gathers extensive data on the print world, it continues to face challenges in getting a true picture of the reach and impact of publishing across multiple platforms."
The 2014 report, released to members last week, provides a comprehensive picture of the structure, value and economics of the newspaper industry and its major trends:
- More than half the world's adult population reads a daily newspaper -- 2.5 billion people -- and more than 800 million in digital form.
-- The newspaper industry generates more than US$160 billion of revenue globally from content sales, advertising revenues and increasingly other forms of diversified revenue streams.
-- Though digital audience and revenues are growing substantially, 93 per cent of newspaper company revenues globally continue to come from print.
WAN-IFRA collects data for more than 70 countries, which represent more than 90 percent of the global industry base, thanks to the positive support of national newspaper and media associations and other contributors.
WAN-IFRA also draws on data from a wide range of global partners, including Zenith Optimedia for advertising trends, IPSOS for national print audience levels, ComScore for digital audience behaviour, PwC for global industry revenue trends, and RAM for editorial and advertising effectiveness.
The participants in Monday's meeting were drawn from contributing organisations. WAN-IFRA welcomes any comments from news media experts as to how to develop the project further.
WAN-IFRA's World Press Trends data is available by subscription through the World Press Trends database, which includes individual country reports, aggregated tables and also allows users to generate custom reports. Users can choose from a large number of criteria – for example, a comparison of circulation and advertising revenues among selected countries -- to produce reports that meet their own specific needs. These can be downloaded in Excel to enable in-depth analysis, benchmarks and historic trends.
WAN-IFRA continues to publish the key data and analysis in an annual report, available free to its members and for sale to non-members.
The 2015 report will be presented at the World News Media Congress, World Editors Forum and World Advertising Forum, to be held in Washington, DC, from 1 to 3 June 2015.
