We know that many of you are hungry for data to help you keep up with current media industry trends and prepare for changes that are just around the corner. To help you do just that, we’ve started compiling excerpts from some of the key stories covering those issues each month.
This month’s selections cover a range of topics, including what’s happening with the advertising and mobile industries, app and Internet usage, and ebooks.
Ad Spending Rises 3.5% in Second Quarter, With a Little Help (AdAge)
- After holding ad spending flat in the first quarter, marketers increased their spending in U.S. measured media in the second quarter by 3.5% from the quarter a year earlier, according to data from Kantar Media.
- Total spending for the first six months of the year grew 2% to $68.9 billion, Kantar said.
- Consumer magazines’ print advertising climbed 1.9%, based on their rate card prices, but the number of ad pages fell 2.1%, Kantar Media noted. Sunday magazines followed a similar pattern, with a 4.1% boost in print ad spending but a 6.3% drop in pages.
- Ad spending on local papers’ print editions declined 4.3% as auto dealers, financial services and retailers reined in their budgets. National newspapers’ print editions held roughly even with a 0.5% decline, according to Kantar Media.
Worldwide Ad Growth Buoyed by Digital, Mobile Adoption (eMarketer)
- Global ad spending will rise 2.8% to more than half a trillion dollars in 2013, driven by continued adoption of digital devices and internet connectivity, according to eMarketer’s latest Global Media Intelligence Report, produced in collaboration with Starcom MediaVest Group.
- Still, the global economy is in recovery mode, and while total media ad spending will be up this year, the rate of increase will not be particularly strong compared to last year’s 4.4% spending increase. In total, eMarketer estimates ad expenditures around the world will reach $517.10 billion this year.
- Digital, however, is a bright spot—particularly mobile. eMarketer estimates spending on digital advertising will reach $117.60 billion this year, up 13.0% compared to 2012 levels, while mobile spending will hit nearly $15.82 billion, representing a whopping 79.7% year-over-year increase.
Percentage of People Who Go Online With Their Phones Doubles (Poynter)
- Sixty-three percent of people who own cell phones use them to get online, Pew reports. That’s double the percentage of people who said they did so in April 2009.
- One-third of those people (21% of the total) “mostly use their phone to access the internet, as opposed to other devices like a desktop, laptop, or tablet computer,” Pew said.
Bad News, Apple – Tablet Buyers Now Prioritize Price Over Brand Name (TabTimes)
- Surveying 726 tablet owners in the U.S, the U.K and Australia this July, Gartner found that brand name had slipped to No. 3 in importance when buying a tablet, despite being the most important factor just two years ago.
- iPad and Samsung tablet owners apparently spend 30 minutes extra each day on entertainment, while 80% of iPad owners were described as “heavy users” and use them for more than 10 hours a day.
App Downloads Will Reach 102B in 2013: Gartner (Appnewser)
- Mobile app stores will see annual downloads reach 102 billion in 2013, up from 64 billion in 2012, according to a new report from Gartner.
- Total revenue in 2013 will reach $26 billion, up from $18 billion in 2012. Free apps will account for 91% of total downloads in 2013. Gartner said that in-app purchases will account for 48% of app store revenue by 2017, up from 11% in 2012.
- OS and Android app stores combined are forecast to account for 90% of global downloads in 2017. However, average monthly downloads per iOS device to decline are expected to decline from 4.9 in 2013 to 3.9 in 2017, while average monthly downloads per Android device will decline from 6.2 in 2013 to 5.8 in 2017.
Adult E-book Sales Post Small Six-Month Increase (Publishers Weekly)
- According to AAP’s monthly StatShot report, adult e-books rose only 4.8% in the first six months of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012, hitting $647.7 million. E-book sales in June fell 8.7%, to $108.6 million.
- Trade paperback sales fell 11.5% in the period at publishers that report to AAP, to $635.1 million. Adult hardcover sales were up 7.4% in the first six months, to $580.7 million.
New Research Says Mobile Users Have Short App-tention Span (Econtent)
- Localytics’ data show that, over the past year, users are spending 14% less time per session, on average, for apps across many categories—including books, news, social networking, business, utilities, weather, music, and entertainment.
- However, a closer look at the results shows that they’re launching these apps 28% more often, resulting in an 8% increase in average collective daily time using apps.
- “We found that the average session length on tablet news apps decreased by 16%, on average, over the past year. But total time spent on tablet news apps increased by 14%, on average,” Raj Aggarwal, CEO of Localytics, says. “These are signs that apps are becoming more ingrained in our everyday lives, with users turning to them more frequently but for shorter bursts of time.”
In U.S., Trust in Media Recovers Slightly From All-Time Low (Gallup)
- Forty-four percent of Americans say they have a great deal or fair amount of trust and confidence in the mass media, identical to 2011 but up from 40% in 2012, the lowest reading since Gallup regularly began tracking the question in 1997.
- Although up from the all-time low found last year, Americans’ confidence in the mass media remains lower than it was in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Their confidence began to decline in 2005 and has been lower since.
Journalists See Social Media as Instrument to Advance Reporting, Not Threat (BusinessDay)
- When global public relations group ECCO International recently conducted an international survey of 1149 journalists from 12 countries about their social media habits and preferences, it found that 87% view social media as “complementary” traditional journalism as opposed to a threat.
- Facebook dominated as the most popular social media platform for journalists internationally (86%).
- Four in 10 journalists agreed that certain skills were needed to do research or write for social media. However, over three quarters of journalists surveyed stated that they have never had any social media related training.
15% of US Adults Don’t Use the Internet: Pew Research (Mediabistro)
- Fifteen percent of adults in the U.S. use the Internet, according to a new report from Pew Research. This is less than a year ago, when 25% of adults reported not using the Internet.
- Surprisingly, 34% of non-Internet users said that the Internet is “just not relevant to them” and they have no need for it. Thirty-two percent of non-Internet users said that the Internet is hard to use and they are worried about spam. Nineteen percent of non-Internet users surveyed said that it is too expensive to own a computer and pay for an Internet connection. A smaller 7% of non-users admitted that they didn’t have access to the Internet.
- Even though 76% of adults use the internet at home, 9% of adults use the internet but lack home access.
Media Metrics is a new monthly feature from Technology for Publishing, aimed at keeping you armed with the latest industry data. If you’d like to share something you’ve read, drop us a note. And keep up with the latest industry news coverage by signing up for our This Week in Publishing emails or our monthly Publishing Trends newsletter.
Posted by: Margot Knorr Mancini
