Publishers are in a tight spot these days. Audience reach has massively decreased, revenues are down, costs are up, with newspaper printing costs rising by 60% in the UK. Added to those woes is the fact that advertising revenue is tanking for many, too.
Newsprint costs are rising
Predictions from intelligence provider WARC report that global advertising revenue for total print will experience a 7.7% drop-off in 2023, and that over the last six years, the global ad marketplace for print has halved.
Things are hardly looking any better for 2024. Reach, the largest commercial news publisher in the UK, has seen a 6.5% drop in its audience figure from last year. It recently announced plans to cut 450 full-time jobs, or 10% of its workforce, in 2024.
That’s on top of the 330 redundancies it has made this year, and the fresh cuts will affect jobs across editorial and journalism roles.
Reach is far from the only publisher suffering. In the U.S. Vice Media has announced layoffs, women’s-interest website Jezebel has shuttered operations, Condé Nast is planning to cut about 5% of its workforce, and The Washington Post plans to offer voluntary buyouts in order to cut 240 jobs.
With an industry in crisis, and the huge social platforms scooping up advertising revenues, “the gap between revenue share for publishers and platforms has tended to widen each year,” says The Press Gazette.
Traditional media is coming under massive pressure from digital
It reports that in the UK, Meta and Alphabet claw in about £15bn a year in UK advertising revenue. That compares to £2bn for all national, regional and magazine titles combined.
“The publishing sector is heavily challenged,” says Stephen Quinn, founder and CEO of Jobbio.
“We know publishers are under massive pressure to fill advertising space, because the demand isn’t necessarily there. And if it is there, it’s at a much lower price. So publishers are under pressure financially, they’re under pressure operationally, and it’s a really difficult environment.”
A unique revenue proposition
Now, it’s more important than ever for publishers to find new ways to make money.
In response, Jobbio has created Amply, which provides publishers across the globe with an immersive, curated job board, smart ad tech and content to maximise audience engagement––all of which are designed to unlock a valuable new revenue stream.
“Recruitment is effectively split into two audiences,” Quinn says. “There’s a passive audience and there’s an active audience. All of the money in the recruitment space is focused on active job seekers. But actually, a lot of customers are looking for someone who’s working for their competitor, not necessarily an active job seeker.”
This is where the real value of Amply emerges. By leveraging existing audiences large and small––“we’re interested in all shapes and sizes”––publishers can leverage Amply’s tech to drive much-needed revenue.
“We’ll plug in a job board into your infrastructure; we can curate it so that it is relevant to your audience; we can make it look and feel like your brand; we can contribute content, and we can place widgets of all shapes and sizes, suitable for your website,” he says.
“It doesn’t take any tech work necessarily at all, so it’s very easy to do. And once the commercials are agreed, which are fairly fluid, we can be up and running in 24 hours.”
Amply is already successfully working with over 100 publishers, which include major media groups such as Conde Nast, the Daily Mail and News Corp. Longevity and consistency are key, Quinn says.
Get in touch with us
Amply is the product publishers have been looking for to boost their bottom line. “Publishers have to evolve, and we are working out what challenges they are having,” Quinn says. “Amply can be a part of their long-term success to help them not just survive––but thrive.”
Find out more about what Amply can do for you by getting in touch with us today
