Global smartphone subscriber growth

Smartphone subscriber growth remains rapid, with an estimated 1.5 billion subscribers, 31 percent growth from 2012 to 2013, and a global penetration of 21 percent, according to Informa, as reported by Mary Meeker’s digital report. By far the highest number of smartphone subscriptions are in China, with 354 million, followed by the United States, with 219 million.

However, the penetration of smartphone subscriptions as a percentage of all mobile subscriptions is highest in Japan, with 76 percent, followed by Korea with 67 percent, Canada with 63 percent, Australia and Sweden with 60 percent, Hong Kong with 59 percent
and the United States and the Netherlands with 58 percent.

Growth of smartphone subscriptions is most swift in Taiwan, with a 60 percent year-over year growth, followed by 52 percent for India, 43 percent for Mexico and 40 percent for Iran.

The data set is a part of a collection of 500 revenue and usership trends in mobile, social, Internet, tablet, video and other digital categories, published in the 200-page Global Digital Media Trendbook 2013. GDMT, in its eight year, is to be published by World Newsmedia Network, a not-for-profit media research company, in September 2013. To subscribe to the PDF report and/or the tablet edition, go to www.wnmn.org, or contact mstone@wnmn.org.

Smartphone users' gender, age, 2011 - 2012

Smartphone users in America tend to be over 25, equally male and female and tend to earn more than US$50,000 per year. They tend to access mobile app and Web content several times per day. They also tend to access email, listen to music, use a social network, play games, download and use apps, make purchases and read a book, according to the Online Publishers Association’s “Portrait of Today’s Smartphone User” in 2012. Smartphone user numbers are growing rapidly. Thirty-one percent of the respondents owned a smartphone in 2011, which grew to 44 percent in 2012 and is projected to be 57 percent in 2013.

The data set is a part of a collection of 500 revenue and usership trends in mobile, social, Internet, tablet, video and other digital categories, published in the 200-page Global Digital Media Trendbook 2013. GDMT, in its eight year, is to be published by World Newsmedia Network, a not-for-profit media research company, in September 2013. To subscribe to the PDF report and/or the tablet edition, go to www.wnmn.org, or contact mstone@wnmn.org.

Copyright and digital piracy

Digital piracy robs the publishing, book, music and film industries of monetary value, according to a Kantar research report for the United Kingdom’s media regulatory agency Ofcom in 2013. Digital piracy accounts for trillions of dollars of lost sales for these creative media sectors around the world. Pervasive media piracy threatens the future of
media as we know it.

“Piracy reduces the sector’s economic contribution, although estimates of sales losses vary. In this context, suppliers of licensed digital cultural products for sale or for access via a subscription, face an uneven playing field in relation to unlicensed suppliers,” according to Enders Analysis in the United Kingdom.

The European Commission estimates the economic contribution of the “creative industries”, or film, books and music, at 3 percent of GDP, or €500 billion of turnover, according to Enders in 2013. The media industry, including television, radio, newspapers, magazines and digital media typically represents between 1.5 percent and 2.5 percent of a nation’s GDP. The highest media-to-GDP ratios are typically in the most developed countries, according to “The Media Economy”, by Alan B. Abarran.

“Why is piracy prevalent? Common sense indicates that the ‘free’ option to obtain copies of copyrighted content holds instant appeal: no expenditure or payment is required, only a broadband connection. By contrast, the purchaser allocates a share of his income (which reduces expenditure on other items), and must have a means of online payment (credit card, voucher, PayPal). The first peer-reviewed study on piracy in the UK by Ofcom, the regulator, has confirmed that “because it’s free” is by far the most significant driver of piracy, cited by 56 percent of (pirating) respondents,” according to the Enders analysis.

Ofcom completed a study of legal and pirated content consumption in the United Kingdom in 2013 through Kantar research. They found that 20 percent of those who consumed films and 14 percent of those who consumed music did so illegally, while 67 percent of those who consumed films and 74 percent of those who consumed music did so legally. Of all Internet users 12+, the numbers are staggeringly different. Only 14 percent of those who consumed films and 28 percent of those who consumed music did so legally, while 4 percent of film consumers and 5 percent of music consumers did so illegally. The data suggests the ease by which content can be illegally downloaded on the Internet may play a part in the significantly lower number of people who consume content legally online compared to all respondents.

Those respondents who said they have legally consumed content say they access 12 pieces of music, 2 films, 6 TV programs and 2 computer software programs per month, while infringers say they consume 12 music items, 4 films and 4 TV programs, according to the Ofcom study.

Who are the infringers? They tend to be male (59 percent), between 16 and 34 years old (58 percent), and in the ABC1 group more often (59 percent) compared to the C2DE group (41 percent). Legal content consumers tend to be female (53 percent), between the ages of 16 and 34 years old (38 percent) and in the ABC1 age group (69 percent).

The data set is a part of a collection of 500 revenue and usership trends in mobile, social, Internet, tablet, video and other digital categories, published in the 200-page Global Digital Media Trendbook 2013. GDMT, in its eight year, is to be published by World Newsmedia Network, a not-for-profit media research company, in September 2013. To subscribe to the PDF report and/or the tablet edition, go to www.wnmn.org, or contact mstone@wnmn.org.

Plans to purchase consumer electronics in next 12 months, worldwide

Accenture’s 2012 global study of consumer electronics purchase intent underscores the assertions that smartphones and tablets are hot-ticket items. Twenty-six percent of the survey respondents across the world said they intend to buy a smartphone in 2013, a 3 percent increase from 2012’s survey.

Meanwhile, only 5 percent of the respondents said they were going to purchase a regular cell phone, a decrease of 8 percent from the previous year. Tablet purchase intent led the pack of digital devices with the highest growth in purchase intent: 8 percent, with 17 percent of the respondents saying they intend to buy a tablet in 2013.

High-definition television is the second most sought-after digital device, with 20 percent of respondents saying they intend to buy this year; however, the intention to buy an HDTV has dropped five percent since 2012’s survey. Computer purchase intent has held steady since the previous survey, with 17 percent intending to buy this year, a one percent increase from last year.

The data set is a part of a collection of 500 revenue and usership trends in mobile, social, Internet, tablet, video and other digital categories, published in the 200-page Global Digital Media Trendbook 2013. GDMT, in its eight year, is to be published by World Newsmedia Network, a not-for-profit media research company, in September 2013. To subscribe to the PDF report and/or the tablet edition, go to www.wnmn.org, or contact mstone@wnmn.org.

Companies with highest digital advertising revenues

Google continues to dominate the digital advertising revenue landscape in the United States, earning almost one-third of the digital advertising pie, or US$12.8 billion in 2011 and $15.4 billion in 2012, according to Pew’s “State of the News Media” report. Facebook’s revenues remain steady at $3.1 billion, while Yahoo earned $1.7 billion in 2011 and $2.2 billion in 2012.

Similarly, Microsoft earned $1.8 billion in 2011 and $2.3 billion in 2012, while AOL remained steady, earning $900 million both years. The second largest slice of the pie goes to “other,” or the hundreds of advertising networks and publishers vying for advertising revenue. The proportion of revenue has increased dramatically in one year, from $10.1 billion to $13.4 billion, according to Pew.

The data set is a part of a collection of 500 revenue and usership trends in mobile, social, Internet, tablet, video and other digital categories, published in the 200-page Global Digital Media Trendbook 2013. GDMT, in its eight year, is to be published by World Newsmedia Network, a not-for-profit media research company, in September 2013. To subscribe to the PDF report and/or the tablet edition, go to www.wnmn.org, or contact mstone@wnmn.org.

U.S. total media advertising by ad type

Video advertising and sponsorship advertising are on the ascendancy among digital advertising units in the United States; however, search advertising remains king, having grown from US$15.1 billion to $17.58 billion from 2011 to 2012, a 16.4 percent surge. Video advertising is showing particular promise for local publishers and broadcasters looking for lucrative revenue streams for their content businesses. Video advertising fetches sometimes ten times the value of ordinary banner advertising.

Meanwhile, banner ads continue to maintain their stronghold in the No. 2 spot, growing from $7.55 billion to $8.68 billion, a 0.6 percent increase. Rich media and lead generation also grew in the double digits, albeit from a small baseline, according the Pew’s “State of the News Media” research in 2012.

The data set is a part of a collection of 500 revenue and usership trends in mobile, social, Internet, tablet, video and other digital categories, published in the 200-page Global Digital Media Trendbook 2013. GDMT, in its eight year, is to be published by World Newsmedia Network, a not-for-profit media research company, in September 2013. To subscribe to the PDF report and/or the tablet edition, go to www.wnmn.org, or contact mstone@wnmn.org.

International New York Times to expand opinion pages

The opinion offerings by the New York Times relaunches the International Herald Tribune as The International New York Times on October 15 and is expanding its roster of international opinion writers, RTTNews.com reported. As a part of the expansion plan, more international opinion contributors, new editorial staff, and an additional page in the INYT's weekend edition will be added.

According to a statement by the company, the INYT opinion pages will be edited from Hong Kong, Paris, London, and New York. It will be tailored for global audiences.

The paper's op-ed team announced that it would be hiring 29 opinion writers from countries including Egypt, Bangladesh, Russia, and Poland to contribute monthly columns, according to a report by the ColumbiaJournalism Review. The new opinion writers' diversity also extends to their professions. Not all of them are journalists; handfuls are academics, including political theorists, sociologists, and scholars.

The International New York Times has appointed two part-time editorial board writers: Mira Kamdar, based in Paris, and Masaru Tamamoto, based in Yokohama, Japan. Kamdar is a faculty member of the École de Journalisme at Sciences Po and the author of "Planet India: The Turbulent Rise of the Largest Democracy." Tamamoto has been a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute, a research associate at Cambridge University and a MacArthur Foundation fellow in international peace and security at Princeton University.

According to the press release, The INYT has also assembled a roster of more than two dozen contributing opinion writers who will write monthly columns reflecting perspectives, debates and ideas from around the world.

"The quality and geographic range of voices in the International New York Times Opinion Pages will help ensure that our pages reflect those issues that are the most relevant and compelling to our global readers," said Andrew Rosenthal, editorial page editor of The New York Times. "Our international readers have asked us for more viewpoints from around the globe, and we are delighted to fulfil that request."

By: Savita V Jayaram

HuffPost launches its German online edition

The Huffington Post launched its’ eighth international edition in Munuch, Germany yesterday. This site is an outcome of the recent partnership with Hubert Burda’s Tomorrow Focus Media, which is one of Germany's fastest-growing digital media companies, a release by The Post states.

This is the Post's fifth edition in Europe, following the UK, France, Spain, and Italy. Arianna wrote, "HuffPost Deutschland will be led by editorial director, Cherno Jobatey, who for 20 years was the host of the popular morning show ZDF-Morgenmagazin, and will be both a journalistic outlet and a blogging platform for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland."

HuffPost Deutschland will be relentlessly covering politics, business, and economics, along with stories that encompass everything from sports, technology, and food to media, religion, and entertainment. On the occasion of the German launch, Arianna and HuffPost CEO Jimmy Maymann joined the press conference in Munich's Literaturhaus by Tomorrow Focus AG CEO Toon Boutin, member of the Management Board at Tomorrow Focus AG, Christoph Schuh, Managing Director of Tomorrow Focus Media Oliver Eckert, as well Jobatey and Matthes.

In Arianna’s blog post, she highlighted, "HuffPost Deutschland is launching at a time of transition and disruption in the German media. Blogging is still in its early stages here, which means the opportunities for growth are tremendous for HuffPost, which is a media hybrid -- a combination of a journalistic outlet that last year won a Pulitzer Prize for its investigative reporting and a powerful platform bringing thousands of voices that otherwise would not have a platform into the global conversation. Our goal is not just to be telling the most important stories but to be helping the people of Germany tell their stories themselves -- in words, in pictures, and in video."

The Huffington Post mixes traditional journalism with blogging and user commentary of the digital age, according to dw.de.  While many consider it the end of journalism in Germany, others consider Thursday's launch as an effort by the US media giant to foray into another European market and firmly stick its plans to expand its presence in 14 countries by the end of 2014. According to Oliver Eckert of the Tomorrow Focus Media, which publishes the German edition of the Huffington Post, the website will open shop next in Brazil. The Huffington Post's original concept will be adopted by the edition targeting markets in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

According to dw.de, by the end of 2013, 60 German newspaper publishers want to introduce pay walls for their online editions. Oliver Eckert, publisher of the Huffington Post's German edition said, "The Post's vision will be clear. We welcome the digital transformation, without closing our eyes to the problems." He further hopes that the German edition will turn a profit by 2016 at the latest. Three million Euros have been invested in the German edition and the number of users should rise to 9 million a month. That would make the Huffington Post, with its offices in Munich, the fifth largest news platform in Germany.

According to an earlier announcement by the Post last month, The Post and Abril Group, one of Brazil's largest media conglomerate, announced partnership and unveiled plans to launch the Brazilian edition soon. Jimmy Maymann, CEO of the Huffington Post Media Group said, "This edition will not only put HuffPost in its ninth country and fifth continent, but also will land us at the center of one of the highest-growth regions in the world. Brazil has more than 100 million Internet users, the 5^th largest audience in the world, and is growing fast – 7.6% annually through 2016 according to e-marketer Research." The Brazilian edition of the HuffPost will join the other 40 editorial websites and almost 30 titles available for tablets that Abril runs today.

By: Savita V Jayaram

Financial Times to publish single global print edition

The Financial Times plans to move away from its print legacy by bringing about some trailblazing changes to the publishing of its different news editions globally, with complete focus on ‘smart aggregation of content,’ Journalism.co.uk reported. This move outlines the financial news’ major’s gradual shift towards online media and provides for an indicative outline of the future: To go only-digital.

In a memo issued to staffers, Lionel Barber, editor of FT has signalled the next steps towards the “digital-first” strategy. The single global print product will be launched in the first half of 2014, with newly redesigned and updated content that reflects modern taste and reading habits. This change will impact the newsroom structure and influences change in the way newspapers practice journalism. The future print edition will derive from the web offering and not vice versa, which will be produced by a small print-focused team working alongside a larger integrated web/day production team.

This single section newspaper means “minimal late evening changes and more templating of standard pages.” However the UK edition will retain its flexibility to include tailored UK content, with designing efforts being focused on “show pages” with accompanying rich data and graphics, Barber stated in the memo. Furthermore, news editors and reporters will shift away from reactive newsgathering to value-adding “news in context,” while following its pursuit of original, investigative journalism. Overall, these changes will mean that much of the newspaper will be pre-planned and produced.

The newspaper that once planned around page layouts will now adopt a news bulletin-style approach, USA Today reported.

"News editors will need to do more pre-planning and intelligent commissioning for print and online. This will require a change in mindset for editors and reporters but it is absolutely the right way forward in the digital age," Barber stated in the memo. Plans online include an emphasis on articles rather than section pages.

Online stories will be published to correspond with peak viewing times, much like a broadcast schedule, and the website will include the newspapers and some third-party content, according to a report by Bloomberg.

By: Savita V Jayaram

Bloomberg CEO announced '100-day' strategy plan

Justin Smith, the now Chief Executive Officer of Bloomberg Media Group, has announced a ‘100-day strategy plan,’ to chart the company’s course of growth over the next few years. This effort would involve more than one hundred employees of the media group, including many top managers working in ten to fifteen groups to grow the company’s various platforms, AdWeek.com reported.

While Bloomberg LP is still devising the means for its media business to become a household name as to reckon with consumers, Smith stressed on the importance of going digital. As a part of the plan, Smith also announced his first big hire, Zazie Lucke, as head of global advertisement marketing, reported Paul Bascobert. She starts on October 14^th and will be based out of New York. Additionally Lucke will also be responsible for generating marketing ideas across all platforms and is expected to be heavily involved in the 100-day strategy plan.

Two of Bloomberg Media Group’s longstanding leaders, Trevor Fellows, head of Global Sales, and Malcolm Fried, head of Bloomberg TV for EMEA in London, have quit, while at Bloomberg TV in London, Parry Ravindranathan, the head of Bloomberg TV Asia/Pacific, will step in to manage EMEA in addition to Asia, according to MediaBistro.com.

While further details on the hundred-day strategy plan weren’t divulged at this point in time by Justin, further announcements on the upcoming strategic initiatives are expected in the weeks to come.

By: Savita V Jayaram

Boston Globe to ape “Facebook-like” content stream

BostonGlobe.com, a paid news site, plans to feature a personalized content stream while its sister, Boston.com, will adopt a responsive design with its website resizing to suit the screen size since 2011.

In a span of less than two years, the well-known Boston news site plans to offer a “personalized content stream,” along the lines of the popular social media networking major, Facebook. Per the terms of the personalization of the news service to be offered by the Boston Globe, its news feeds will be presented through an automated understanding of user behaviour on the news site and the type of content that interests the reader.

With a goal of addressing target audiences with specific news that meets their interests, this personalized feature will be introduced to users at a monthly subscription charge of $14.99, with a current 45,000 digital-only subscriber base, Journalism.co.uk reported.

Meanwhile, its sister site, Boston.com, allows free unlimited access to all content and will adopt a responsive design. With an initial prototype being developed in the second-half of 2010, we "could see what it could do across devices."

Earlier this year, The Boston Globe launched an iPhone app priced at $4.99 a month, with analysis and understanding of the fact that app users are more price-sensitive.

By: Savita V Jayaram

Global entertainment and media market by segment, 2008-2017

Wired and mobile Internet access and advertising, video games and TV advertising are driving the growth for the global entertainment and media market from now until 2017, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Global Entertainment and Media Outlook. (See chart below.) Wired and mobile advertising will represent the media with the largest compounded annual growth rate from 2013 to 2017, at 13.1 percent, while wired and mobile Internet access will drive 11.1 percent of the growth.

Meanwhile, the video games market will grow 6.5 percent, while TV advertising will grow 5.3 percent during the same period. Magazine, newspaper and book publishing remain flat from 2013 to 2017, according to PwC.

The data set is a part of a collection of 500 revenue and usership trends in mobile, social, Internet, tablet, video and other digital categories, published in the 200-page Global Digital Media Trendbook 2013. GDMT, in its eight year, is to be published by World Newsmedia Network, a not-for-profit media research company, in September 2013. To subscribe to the PDF report and/or the tablet edition, go to www.wnmn.org, or contact mstone@wnmn.org.

Internally and externally mined Big Data

Typically external data for media companies includes social media, audio, photos and video, all unstructured data, while internal data includes log data, transactions and emails, according to an IBM study.

The Big Data disruption represents yet another set of threats and opportunities for the media industry already beleaguered with challenges.

Gartner publishes its digital media hype cycle for all digital developments, including Big Data. The hype cycle includes five stages:
• Technology trigger, or the point at which the technology storms onto the business scene
• Peak of inflated expectations, when the technology climbs the ladder of business buzz
• Trough of disillusionment, when the buzz is reduced to a more reasonable business expectation
• Slope of enlightenment, where the technology’s true value is realised
• Plateau of productivity, when the technology hits its stride and becomes a part of a company’s business processes

Gartner projects that Big Data is currently climbing the peak of inflated expectations, and will take two to five years to reach the plateau of productivity.

According to a Gartner research study, about half of communications, media and service companies in the world have either already invested in technology to address the Big Data challenge, or are planning to do so in the next year or two.

Other industries are far ahead of media in terms of creating Big Data strategies and investing in technologies and data analyst expertise. About one-third of education, retail, transportation and healthcare respondents to the Gartner study said they have already invested in Big Data technology, and another third said they plan to do so in the next year or two.

Another study done by IBM and Said Business School at the University of Oxford produced similar results: More companies in the United Kingdom and Ireland are recognising the competitive advantage associated with Big Data. Sixty-three percent now understand the advantage compared to 34 percent in 2010.

The companies plan to use Big Data mostly for customer-centric outcomes, 38 percent; followed by optimising operations, 26 percent; enabling new business models, 18 percent; risk and financial management, 16 percent; and employee collaboration, 2 percent.
Among the responding companies, data is mainly collected through business transactions, 90 percent; followed by log data, 72 percent; emails, 61 percent; events, 59 percent; social media, 39 percent; and geospatial data, 37 percent.

Other industries are far ahead of media in terms of creating Big Data strategies and investing in technologies and data analyst expertise. About one-third of education, retail, transportation and healthcare respondents to the Gartner study said they have already invested in Big Data technology, and another third said they plan to do so in the next year or two.

The IBM study not only takes a snapshot of today’s current sentiment about Big Data strategies, it also shines a light on the possible future strategies to adopt across industries. Big Data is nothing if a versatile and far-reaching strategy across the boundaries of the media company’s value chain.

The possibilities to consider include transactions affecting the finance department and executive management; log data and email data affecting the technology services, marketing and digital media departments, and content including social media, audio, video and photos affecting the traditional and digital journalism departments.

The data set is a part of a collection of 500 revenue and usership trends in mobile, social, Internet, tablet, video and other digital categories, published in the 200-page Global Digital Media Trendbook 2013. GDMT, in its eight year, is to be published by World Newsmedia Network, a not-for-profit media research company, in September 2013. To subscribe to the PDF report and/or the tablet edition, go to www.wnmn.org, or contact mstone@wnmn.org.

Top European, U.S. markets for IPTV, 2008 to 2012

The top European and North American markets for IPTV are France, the United States and Denmark, according to IDATE in 2012. The U.S. and France have trebled their penetrations between 2008 and 2012, and are tracking to almost double again by 2016. However, many broadcast operations around the world are executing smart strategies to produce video and other interactive content for PC, mobile and tablet, in addition to the television screen.

The data set is a part of a collection of 500 revenue and usership trends in mobile, social, Internet, tablet, video and other digital categories, published in the 200-page Global Digital Media Trendbook 2013. GDMT, in its eight year, is to be published by World Newsmedia Network, a not-for-profit media research company, in September 2013. To subscribe to the PDF report and/or the tablet edition, go to www.wnmn.org, or contact mstone@wnmn.org.

U.S. tablet, smartphone news users subscribe more to print

According to Pew Research Center’s research with The Economist Group in October 2012, U.S. news users who own tablets and smartphone subscribe more to print. Thirty-one percent have print-only subscriptions, 14 percent have a subscription with print and digital access, and 9 percent have a digital-only subscription.


U.S. print loyalists outnumber mobile-only subscribers, according to Pew Research Center’s research with The Economist Group in October 2012. Thirteen percent also have a digital-only subscription, and 24 percent are thinking of giving up their print subscriptions for a digital one.


Virtually all of the newspaper and magazine publishers surveyed by the Alliance for Audited Media in North America expect to publish content formatted for mobile devices by 2013. The penetration of publishers formatting content for mobile devices has doubled since 2009, according to AAM, formerly Audit Bureau of Circulations.

While mobile revenues only represent between 1 percent and 9 percent of circulation revenues for more than half of North American newspapers and magazines surveyed in October 2012, 27 percent of the publishers project that mobile circulation revenues will be between 10 percent and 19 percent of circulation revenues by the end of 2014, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. Six percent of those surveyed said they believe 20 to 24 percent of their circulation revenues will be digital, and 8 percent think 25 percent or more will be by the end of 2014. Four percent think their mobile circulation will be zero by the end of next year.

The data set is a part of a collection of 500 revenue and usership trends in mobile, social, Internet, tablet, video and other digital categories, published in the 200-page Global Digital Media Trendbook 2013. GDMT, in its eight year, is to be published by World Newsmedia Network, a not-for-profit media research company, in September 2013. To subscribe to the PDF report and/or the tablet edition, go to www.wnmn.org, or contact mstone@wnmn.org.