The Weekly Bulletin | August 22, 2023

Hi SODP community,

Let’s recap on what’s been happening last week, the new content, industry updates, tips, and more.

EDITOR’S NOTE

Echo chambers, though widely acknowledged, often remain unnoticed in our personal lives.

Take, for example, the notion that digital media’s rise is ushering in print’s inevitable end. Perhaps not dead, but it’s certainly on life support.

It’s a perception that tends to be reinforced by stories such as The Guardian’s coverage of the closure of one of the UK’s two large-scale printers.

Stop the Press

German-backed Prinovis’ closure, first reported in November, leaves London-based rival Walstead printing nine of the UK’s top 10 magazines.

Reading such stories makes me question whether I’m right in arguing that print still has a place in the wider media landscape.

Still, looking into Prinovis’ closure reveals a slightly more interesting narrative than the “print is dying” trope.

It seems Prinovis used rotogravure printers, compared with the far more widespread web offset printers used by Walstead. I won't pretend I understand much about the mechanical details of each, my office printer is nightmare enough, but there does seem to be a noticeable cost difference between the two technologies.

Number Crunching

Reports dating back more than two decades point to gravure being less economical than web offset, becoming cost-efficient for catalogs with 48 pages or less at print runs of 1.25-1.5 million.

We should be able to agree that print publishing is contracting. However, the pace at which it’s declining, and its long-term outlook, is another matter. For example, PwC data suggests that the print industry will dominate the revenue share of major published media sectors in the short to mid-term.

Indeed, print circulation and print advertising combined account for 80% of all industry revenues, and PwC forecasts that this will only slip to 75% by 2026.

So, what does this mean within the context of the Prinovis-Walstead narrative?

Evolve or Die

The nature of print publishing is changing, thanks to audiences’ widespread adoption of digital. The number of papers and magazines publishers can move is declining, and players who find themselves unable to change will be forced into shuttering their doors.

Established publishers now need to think in terms of smaller print runs, while new entrants have little choice but to think this way. This means the entire print supply chain needs to evolve.

This was the consensus of a new report from market consultancy Smithers, the Future of Printer Demographics to 2028, which identifies a shift towards shorter print runs amid a gradual decline in print publication numbers.

To me, this means that while print as we’ve known it may be dying, the industry is evolving into something new. This evolution means that print publishers and their supply chains need to adopt new approaches.

The Grub Street Journal, a new entrant in the print space having just published its second edition, argues that newcomers need to change their mindsets. Founders Joanna Cummings and Peter Houston note that it’s not a case of print or digital but rather print and digital.

Print-focused publications still need to leverage the digital ecosystem to achieve some measure of success. This is a lesson that Alyson Shontell has proactively applied since taking over as Fortune's editor-in-chief, investing heavily in the magazine’s digital footprint while preserving print’s role as "an important differentiator".

Print retains significant value when accompanied by a well-defined strategy for its integration within the digital landscape.

SODP POSTS

LEARN WITH SODP

We are launching a News SEO Playbook course on Maven. Taught by SODP’s founder and news SEO veteran Vahe Arabian, the 4-week course will guide the participants through tried-and-true technical and content SEO strategies, as well as tactics to measure the performance of content and expand its reach.

The course will be taught in cohorts and supplemented by optional one-on-one calls to discuss tools and workflow optimization strategies. You can now join the waitlist to be the first one to learn when a new cohort is announced. LEARN MORE

JOB BOARD

➡️ The US Sun is looking for an SEO Reporter to join its team. The bulk of the job is writing explainers on trending topics (Hybrid, NYC). SEE MORE

➡️ Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is hiring a senior manager/Division Head – Head of Innovation and Audience Engagement (Prague). SEE MORE

➡️ The Australian Women’s Weekly is looking for an Editor. Responsibilities include driving and overseeing the cover strategy, content, direction and commercial success of the publication (Sydney). SEE MORE

NEWSLETTERS WE RECOMMEND

➡️ Subscribe to the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter for one two-minute tip per week on how to punch above your weight as an underdog brand or creator. SEE MORE

➡️ Get proven techniques to grow your site with Niche Site Lady’s weekly newsletter. SEE MORE

COMMUNITY BUZZ

INDUSTRY NEWS

➡️ Google's John Mueller answers what the actual reasons are for why the ARTICLE semantic HTML element is useful. READ MORE

➡️ Google has launched GA4 Reports Builder for Google Analytics – an add-on to create and run reports for GA4 properties using Google Sheets. READ MORE

➡️ Apple announced several new updates to its podcast creator tools, including, most notably, the addition of Subscription Analytics within Apple Podcasts Connect — the dashboard where podcasters track how their listeners engage with their shows. READ MORE

SOCIAL MEDIA DISCUSSIONS

➡️ Himanshu Shama on LinkedIn:

Here is how you can create a report in #GA4 to track outbound links (external links)...

In GA4, you can track clicks on external links on your website without any additional code or tagging.

You just need to enable the 'Outbound clicks' tracking feature under 'Enhanced measurement'.

Once this tracking feature is enabled, whenever a user clicks on an external link on your website, GA4 fires an event called ‘click‘.

SEE THE FULL POST

These are the highlights for last week.

Until next!

Andrew Kemp and the editorial team at SODP