The UK’s daily digital news readership has grown by 2m on last year, yet the advertising revenue to fund it still isn’t following that growth, an industry chief has claimed.
Newsworks executive chairman Tracy De Groose said some 19m people read a digital version of a national newspaper every day – a 14 per cent rise on last year.
But she said the latest advertising forecasts from Warc and the Advertising Association show that the online ad money invested in national news brands will only rise by a modest 1.1 per cent in 2019.
De Groose, challenged 150 senior advertisers and marketers at a leading marketing festival in London last week to explain “why their money wasn’t going into quality content environments where real people exist”.
“We have 2m more readers every day, who are highly engaged in our content. We are innovating in how we deliver the news and it’s working. We are growing multi-platform demand,” she said..
“The question I want to ask you is why is the money not flowing to where the people are, in environments that are trusted, brand safe, with audiences that are highly engaged.”
The Duopoly – Google and Facebook – take the lion’s share of UK digital advertising money, a market worth more than £11bn in 2017.
De Groose was joined on stage digital journalists Claire Eaton-Rutter from Metro.co.uk, David Tomchak at the Evening Standard, Ben Rankin from Mirror Online and the Telegraph’s Robin Hough – who explained how they are innovating and driving greater engagement with their readers.
De Groose, added: “The digital news industry is in rude health – the numbers speak for themselves – but the advertising investment has to catch up with us, and fast. Journalism needs it. More than ever.”
Newsworks is the marketing arm of national newsbrands. De Groose was appointed executive chairman last year.
Picture: Newsworks
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
