Magazine Revenue Will Increase In Next Two Years, Say Half Of UK Publishers

The most common outlook, shared by 38% of the 156 respondents to the survey, is that revenues will increase ‘a little’ over the next one to two years; 10% believe that they will increase a lot. At the other end of the scale, 23% expect a small decrease, whilst just 3% predict a larger fall.

Of the remainder, 3% predict that they will stay the same, whilst 18% reckon that visibility is too poor to forecast anything with any certainty.

The decrease in overall marketing budgets was given by 90% as a reason why magazine spend growth might be hampered.

Perhaps more worryingly though, was that 72% thought that a lack of understanding of the role of magazine advertising might be detrimental to the growth of its revenue. Allied to this was the finding that 46% believe that not enough effort has been put into selling the effectiveness of magazines of an advertising medium. Only 20% believe marketing magazine advertising in this way has been sufficient and 31% declined to comment.

Which of these factors, if any, mitigate against companies increasing their magazine advertising budgets?
	Number	Percentage
Increased use of direct marketing methods	101	64.7%
Increased use of sales forces, field or telephone	43	27.6%
Lack of understanding of the role of magazine advertising	112	71.8%
Proof of the importance / value of the market served	67	42.9%
Proof of the buying / specifying capability of the readers	51	32.7%
Ability to track quantity of sales leads generated through advertising in magazines	93	59.6%
Proof of quality of sales leads generated	68	43.6%
Increased use of other media / means of communication	92	59.0%
Decrease in total marketing budgets	144	92.3%
Other	4	2.6%
Not Specified	4	2.6%
Source: Optima, January 2003