UK magazine publisher's digital earnings grow with tablets' popularity

UK magazine publisher Future announced its digital revenues are up almost 40 percent in the six month period ending March 31, despite a £700,000 pre-tax loss due mainly to troubles in its U.S. branch, MediaGuardian reported. 

The group unveiled e-editions of many of its titles for the iPad last October. Future’s overall UK revenues grew by 1 percent over last year as the company balanced its growth with digital revenues to the decline in print.

Future, which publishes titles such as Fast Car and Metal Hammer, said its digital revenues rose to £9.6 million year-on-year, an increase of 37 percent. They now account for 44 percent of advertising and 16 perent of total revenues, according to MediaGuardian. Its total UK digital revenues, which include both advertising and e-edition sales, were up 48 percent over the previous year.

“If journalism is going to survive, it has to deliver information to readers and viewers or listeners in a much more effective way,” Bill Grueskin, dean of academic affairs at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, told Columbia Journalism Review when commenting on the future of digital media.

Digital measurement firm comScore noted in a recent report that increased Wifi availability, popularisation of smartphones and tablets, especially iPads, are leading to the reform of digital media. 

Today, half of the U.S. mobile population uses mobile media. The mobile media population who browse the mobile Web, access applications, or download content grew by 19 percent in the past year.  iPads dominate among tablets in driving digital traffic. In August 2011, iPads delivered 97.2 percent of all tablet traffic in the U.S., according to the report, “Digital Omnivores: How Tablets, Smartphones and Connected Devices are Changing U.S. Digital Media Consumption Habits.”

According to a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 19 percent of U.S. adults owned a tablet computer as of January of this year. 

Only 14 percent of tablet users had paid directly to access news and the majority preferred free or low-cost access to news, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism released in October 2011.

A Nielsen report for the fourth quarter of 2011 found that 62 percent of U.S. tablet owners have paid for downloaded music, 58 percent for books and 51 percent for movies, but only 19 percent have done so for news.

Image: DigitalTrends