Media Company Strategy How Legacy Format Audiences Can Fund Digital Transition

The 20,000 Foot View: Media’s well documented struggles of balancing the decline of ad revenue with building digital subscriber bases has resulted in surprising strategic actions by some of its largest entities. As the tech majors take more digital ad revenue form across the digital sphere, publishing, music and online video companies are quietly super-serving legacy products to consumers and stretching the existing high-margins in these areas, as a revenue hedge during this transitional period in digital monetisation. 

Key Findings

• Many large            publishers have now established strong            businesses but their legacy formats            to die

• Between            digital            revenues for the largest global            ad platforms (Facebook, Google, Baidu            Twitter) increased by           

• The New            Times’s subscriber revenue was up                       in            2017 compared to advertising            which was up by just           

• Adblocking is            major threat to publishers’ digital            models with            of consumers aware            adblocking and            ready to block            at any opportunity

• Legacy format            can generate invaluable revenue and            as digital transitions continue

• The music            has tapped the legacy format            with vinyl:            of Vinyl sales            2016 were within the high-spending            demographic Rock genre

Companies and brands Mentioned: Amazon, Apple, Bertelsmann, BuzzFeed, The Economist, Facebook, Google, Harper Collins, Instagram The New York Times, Penguin Random House, Vice, Washington Post, WP