News Corp global chief executive Robert Thomson says print advertising is becoming more valuable as brands are increasingly sceptical of online ads.
Speaking to American business analysts, Thomson says print ads are attracting a premium because they are paired with higher-quality content than the plethora of websites that have sprung up.
“The relative value of print to certain clients in a digitally discursive age, it has to be quality print, is increasing,” he says.
The executive says contrary to the popular narrative that print is dying, advertisers are becoming sceptical of digital, with world’s biggest advertising group WPP forecasting the movement of ad dollars away from newspapers will slow to its lowest rate of decline since 2011.
However, his comments come as Australian newspaper ad revenue fell 13 per cent year-on-year in October, and 16 per cent for News Corp titles, and research indicates press advertising is ranked near the bottom in effectiveness and return on investment by marketers.
[Related: Newspapers in flux]
Thomson also says the Wall Street Journal is attracting heavy demand from tech companies wanting to advertise in print.
“When you look at how trends evolve, people freeze a frame at a time of exponential evolution and you just get things wrong,” he says.
“The preconception would be tech is a digital play. Well, tech people know more about digital than anyone and are advertising in print.”
Thomson says the key advantage printed ad vehicles like newspapers have over digital competition is quality, taking a swing at sites like Buzzfeed that draw clicks with list-based articles.
“Advertisers will ask themselves, ‘do I really want to be seen next to that story?’ It’s pretty garish. You go on to Buzzfeed and you’re in a strange place,” he says.
“There is so much rubbish that is passed off as journalism. There’s a numerical limit to headlines like ‘17 Ways to Keep Your Cat Happy’."
Thomson predicts that quality will eventually win out over quantity, and that with digital advertising rates falling digital publishers are in an unsustainable race for eyeballs with diminishing returns.
However, his view on the book market is not quite as rosy, predicting further consolidation in the book publishing sector and saying News Corp's ebook business has been growing at 22 per cent.
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