Online Overview

Both the financial investment in and return on online activity are growing quickly across the industry. Yet in many cases, this is from a low base of publisher resource, knowledge and sophistication.  

The big question for many publishers is do they know enough about online and are they spending enough on it to build a significant presence quickly enough? For a number of publishers, the answer is simply “no”. 

Yet despite these concerns, online is still viewed as the key which unlocks added-value subscriber packages, a more tailored range of advertiser services and access to international markets. 

There is clearly still a great deal of naivete about the actual costs of building and maintaining a web presence, though most respondents recognise that the whole area is more complex and expensive than originally thought. In addition, the relatively low entry costs to achieve an online presence are producing massive competition and user over-choice on the internet. 

The most common financial website model is still the free-content / advertising-driven one with the drift towards more free content continuing. Yet where publishers are able to, especially in B2B markets, more attempts are being made to charge for content. Also, other funding sources are being used (e.g. sponsorship, ads in emails) rather than straightforward display and classified advertising. 

There is much less talk now about online cannibalising or destroying print – it really is seen as a complementary channel. Yet it is still difficult to find the financial key to online and to monetise all the activity and investment.