News media ad revenue report: $2.3b in last 12 months

Australia’s news media sector has reported an annualised $2.3 billion in advertising revenue for the last four quarters ending September 30 2016, according to the latest News Media Index with data collated by SMI.

The index records all publisher print and digital revenue, as well as whole-of-industry revenue, and is independently verified by SMI.

Print continues to dominate the sector accounting for 80% of total ad revenue, with digital ad spend at 20%, buoyed by a 34% increase in programmatic bookings.

In addition, premium news media websites are growing at nine times the industry average for content sites (excluding programmatic), increasing revenue by 10.8% in the calendar year to date.

“SMI’s agency-only data shows it’s been a tough quarter for most media in the third quarter, with total ad spend back 0.2% from the same quarter a year ago with only Olympic-related media able to report above-average growth,’’ SMI Australia and New Zealand managing director Jane Schulze said.

“Despite that, the news media publishers have continued to grow key parts of their businesses – such as the programmatic side – as they continue to evolve their product capabilities to compete against new digital players.”

The News Media Index, which contains all ad revenue data from the publishers’ financial systems, addresses misconceptions by agency buyers, advertisers, investors and commentators about the true size of the sector.

The revenue data is taken from NewsMediaWorks’ foundation members, News Corp Australia, Fairfax Media, West Australian Newspapers and APN News & Media, who represent approximately 90% of the news media sector. SMI extracts the information directly from publisher financial systems.