Takeaways from Pew’s latest digital media fact sheet

Pew released a brief overview of the digital media industry yesterday, focused on revenue and distribution. The research shows movement away from the traditional, desktop website model of digital publishing on all fronts, as content moves to platforms and ad spending shifts to mobile. You can read the whole report on Pew’s website; here are some quick notes:
Newsletters rule.
At least, everyone thinks they do. 97 percent of news organizations send email newsletters to their readers, while only about 70 percent have mobile apps. Email is flexible, and it’s a cost-effective way to establish a direct relationship with an audience. In the same vein, newsrooms are turning away from proprietary tech to extend their reach on mobile, taking advantage of platforms like Apple News and Facebook instead.
The money’s in mobile advertising.
The print ad market, of course, continues to dwindle, down over $5 billion dollars from 2011. Mobile display ads alone are now worth roughly the same amount as the entire print market, and other formats (video, audio, in-app) definitely put it over the top. With all that spending going on, it’s a shame that publishers and tech companies haven’t found a better way to show ads on your phone. Expect the poor user experience of so much of the mobile web to drive spending into closed platforms with controlled presentation.
Facebook is still a giant.
Facebook and Google’s share of the digital ad market has grown to almost half, driven entirely by Facebook. The social media giant’s so dominant that it’s running out of places to put advertisements, driving higher prices and more intrusive techniques. Meanwhile, Google’s share of the business is slowly shrinking. Everyone uses Google to get where they’re going, but it pays more to be the destination.
