Advertisers shunning newspapers

Print ad revenue continues to fall as full year results for 2014 show double-digit losses and declining market share for newspapers and magazines.

Newspapers lost $127m in ad revenue compared to 2013 with metro titles taking the biggest hit, down 16 per cent year-on-year, according to new Standard Media Index (SMI) data.

Market share for print mediums also dropped with newspapers down from 12.1 to 10.4 per cent and magazines eased from 3.9 per cent to 3.4 per cent.

Newspaper market share has halved in the past eight years from almost 20 per cent while magazines have fallen from third to seventh in SMI rankings.

[Related: Newspapers in flux]

As has been the trend, digital is the biggest riser, up 2.5 per cent to 20.1 per cent – above 20 per cent of the market for the first time.

Outdoor is again the lone bright spot for print as it closes in on 10 per cent of ad spending at 9.7 per cent.

It also outperformed newspapers in December with a $71m spend compared to $60m, leading to speculation that it could overtake newspapers on a yearly basis as early as this year.

However, digital is making significant gains there too, with its share of outdoor ad spending growing from 15.8 per cent to 18.8 per cent, after jumping from 7.5 per cent in 2012.

The trend is likely to accelerate as major outdoor media companies oOh! Media and APN Outdoor talk up their digital assets and plan to convert many of their printed assets to digital in the next few years.

The overall ad market was flat for 2014 at almost $7.5bn after a slow December killed gains throughout the year, but late reports are expected to push the number up slightly.

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