UGC Not A Threat To Publishers

UK publishers predict that up to 40% of their total revenue will come from online activity by 2012, saying they see no threat from blogs and other forms of user-generated content, according to a new report from research consultancy Deloitte.

The report, published in conjunction with the UK Association of Online Publishers, comes from interviews with 30 UK publishers and explores the impact of digital publishing in the sector.

Many publishers admitted that they are looking to integrate UGC into their business, but the priority remained on building their brands to strengthen readership and ad revenue.

Mark Lee, media partner at Deloitte, said: “Publishers no longer see the digital world as a threat to traditional print publishing. Digital revenue generation is averaging 17% of overall revenue and most publishers agree that the growth of online ad spend has boosted [revenues] overall, rather than cannibalising existing print revenues.”