Executive Summary: World Press Trends Outlook 2022–2023
Key headlines from the latest version of WAN-IFRA’s (World Association of News Publishers) flagship report
After the optimism of our 2021–22 report, this year’s World Press Trends study makes for a more sobering read. Publishers are contending with issues on multiple fronts. These considerations include high levels of inflation, rising paper and print costs, as well as ongoing changes to advertising markets.
Meanwhile, the impact of layoffs and significant changes at major tech companies, such as Meta and Twitter, may also have a knock-on effect on publisher strategies; most notably in terms of distribution and some potential revenue streams.
At the same time, publishers are continuing to invest in new revenue streams. Many of our survey respondents report that these investments are beginning to bear financial fruit. Publishers are balancing these efforts with the need to maintain their core revenue streams, often centred around print, while also recognising the need to double-down on investments in areas such as product development, R&D (including AI technologies), reader revenue and personnel.
We explore these themes in detail in this report.