Markets

Print Publishers Sense Big Opportunities From Mobile

By David Weir

Updated on: October 13, 2009 / 10:01 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

New York City, Magazine Publishers of America Innovation Summit
It is looking like 2009 will prove to be the year that print publishers came to realize that mobile platforms are critical to their futures.

According to a recent study by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), roughly 70 percent of publishers are devoting more attention to the mobile market this year than last, and over 80 percent believe that their users will rely more heavily on mobile devices to access information over the next three years.

The ABC study also contained the following findings:

Almost three-quarters of senior executive respondents either have a smart phone application in production now (17 percent) or are planning to develop one in the coming 24 months (56 percent).
Over half of the respondents believe that the business model they will employ for mobile content will rely on a mixture of advertising and subscription fees.
Almost a third believe that mobile revenue will have significant impact on their publications' business within three years.
Though three-quarters believe that their print publication will still be available five years from now, 55 percent believe that digital delivery is strategically significant to their company's future.
Some 44 percent said that mobile devices have added up to 10 percent already to their web traffic.
Over half said that they expect mobile traffic to their web sites will grow by from 5 to 25 percent over the next two years.

This is one of the best studies to date documenting the changing attitudes and expectations of print executives toward mobile's potential to help their businesses. The rapid growth in this awareness among media execs contrasts sharply with the way the industry reacted to the web.

To read the entire ABC report, which is entitled "Going Mobile: How Publishers Are Preparing for the Burgeoning Digital Market," go here.