Black Friday mobile shopping, digital-first in newsrooms, Snap’s disappointing user growth, average time spent with media, and more are covered in this installment of TFP’s Media Metrics roundup.
To help you keep up with trends and prepare for changes just around the corner, every quarter we compile excerpts from some key reports covering issues affecting the publishing and media industries. Here are our top picks.
Black Friday Will Be the Biggest Mobile Shopping Day Ever in the U.S., Forecast Claims (TechCrunch)
- A new report predicts time spent doing mobile shopping via apps will grow 45% in the U.S. during the week of Black Friday, compared with the same period two years ago.
- Revenue generated through apps is expected to break new records this season, with consumers spending more than 6 million hours shopping in the top digital-first apps (Amazon, Wish, Etsy, and Zulily) on Black Friday alone.
- The 6 million-plus hours spent on Black Friday in the top five digital-first apps represent a 40% increase over last year.
Many Newsrooms Around the World Are Lagging When It Comes to New Tech and a Digital-First Mindset (Nieman Lab)
- People with digital-focused titles like “digital content producer,” “social media editor,” or “analytics editor” make up just 18% of newsroom positions, according to a report from the global International Center for Journalists.
- Journalists surveyed said they want different skills training than what their newsrooms offer, with 52% saying they want data journalism training but only 40% of newsrooms actually offering it.
- Most survey respondents said they use social media to find stories and source information, but only 11% reported using social media verification tools.
Snapchat User Growth Disappoints in Another Down Quarter (The New York Times)
- Snap’s third-quarter revenue was $207.9 million, up 62% from a year ago but below Wall Street estimates of $235.5 million.
- Its net loss was $443.2 million—which was nearly four times that a year ago and more than twice what analysts had predicted. Stock-based compensation paid to its employees contributed to half of that loss.
- Snap added 5 million users to its Snapchat messaging service from the previous quarter, but that number was below Wall Street estimates, set at 8 million new users.
Average Time Spent per Day with Major Media by US Adults, 2017 (eMarketer)
- eMarketer estimates that adults in the U.S. this year will spend an average of about 12 hours per day with major media.
- Mobile devices (excluding voice) will take up more than one quarter of total media time.
- Adults will spend three hours, 17 minutes per day on non-voice mobile activities in 2017, an increase of more than an hour since 2013.
- The amount of attention an individual can give to media has its limits, though, and growth is slowing: Time spent with mobile non-voice will rise by 12 minutes in 2017, but will be offset by declines in time spent with desktops or laptops, print, radio, and—most of all—TV.
- TV will remain the most time-consuming traditional medium for adults, accounting for three hours, 58 minutes of daily time this year. However, that’s down seven minutes from 2016.
More Americans Are Turning to Multiple Social Media Sites for News (Pew Research)
- According to Pew Research, about a quarter of all U.S. adults (26%) get news from two or more social media sites, up from 15% in 2013 and 18% in 2016.
- Just under half (45%) of U.S. adults use Facebook for news. Half of Facebook’s news consumers get news from that social media site alone, with just one in five relying on three or more sites for news.
- Users of LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, and WhatsApp are particularly likely to get news on multiple social networks: Half or more get news on three or more social media sites.
- Only 4% of U.S. adults get news from Reddit, and of those, just 38% use three or more social media sites for news.
Twitter Is Approaching Profitability for the First Time After Exceeding Q3 Expectations (Adweek)
- Twitter’s third-quarter earnings exceeded expectations in both total user growth and earnings per share, signaling good news for investors: If the company hits its fourth-quarter guidance, it could be profitable for the first time.
- Twitter gained another 4 million users in the third quarter, bringing the platform’s total to 330 million.
- But overall advertising revenue declined 8% to $503 million, with U.S. revenue falling 11% to $332 million and international revenue increasing 6% to $258 million. Total revenue for the past three months fell to $590 million, a 4% decrease from third-quarter 2016, with data licensing and other revenue increasing 22% to $87 million.
- Total ad engagements grew 99% year over year, with cost per engagement falling 54%. Meanwhile, daily active usage of the platform grew 14%.
- Live video, a key area of focus, also grew, with Twitter streaming more than 830 live events through various partners, driving global audience viewership up 74 million.
Marketing Budgets Stall; CMOs Emphasize Digital (MediaPost)
- A Gartner survey found that only 15% of chief marketing officers say they expect a significant increase in their 2018 budgets, 52% expect a slight increase, and one-third expect their budgets will be cut or frozen.
- Marketing budgets decreased from 12.1% of company revenue in 2016 to 11.3% in 2017, representing a return to 2015 numbers.
- Marketers plan to spend their budgets on retention, dwarfing acquisition budgets by 2 to 1, and 67% of CMOs plan to increase investment in digital advertising.
- Marketing budgets are growing across a range of digital channels, including websites (61%), mobile (59%), and social marketing (64%).
‘Firing on All Cylinders’: Apple Crushes Earnings, Beating Its Own Expectations (Business Insider)
- With $52.6 billion in sales, Apple beat not only Wall Street expectations but also its own forecast of $52 billion.
- All three of Apple’s major product lines reported year-over-year unit sales growth: 7 million iPhone units were sold, up 2%; 3 million iPad units were sold, up 11%; and 3 million Mac units were sold, up 10%.
- App Store, Apple Music subscriptions, and licensing fees grew 34% year over year.
- Forecasts for Q1 2018 are at $84 billion to $87 billion, with a midpoint expectation slightly above $85.2 billion.
U.S. Publishers: $15.8B Annual Revenue Lost to Ad Blocking (MediaPost)
- A recent study reveals the use of ad blockers continues to rise in the U.S., with 26% of consumers now using them, up from 22% in 2016.
- It estimates a loss of more than $15.8 billion in publisher revenue, up from nearly $11 billion last year. The U.S. contributes just under $45 billion to the $100 billion global display market.
- Internationally, the loss of publisher revenue from ad blocking rose to $42 billion, up from $28 billion in 2016. At the time, the worldwide display market was valued at $84 billion.
- The report also analyzes the impact of ad blocking on the e-commerce industry: More than $600 billion is generated globally by users with ad blockers installed.
Smartphones Are Driving All Growth in Web Traffic (Recode)
- Adobe Analytics found smartphones are driving all growth in U.S. web traffic, while access via tablets and computers has declined.
- On smartphones, 61% of site referral traffic came from Google search, another 16% came from Facebook, and other sources made up just 23%. Accordingly, Google and Facebook are taking the lion’s share of ad dollars.
- However, Americans’ use of apps on smartphones dropped 22% and nearly 50% on tablets compared with the beginning of 2016. The decline didn’t extend to top apps by Amazon, Google, and Facebook, according to Adobe.
Study: Fake News Threatens Audience Trust In Digital Pubs (MediaPost)
- A Kantar study shows more than half (59%) of Americans surveyed said hearing about “fake news” hasn’t affected their level of trust in newspapers, and 17% said it has actually increased their trust.
- As for social media, 54% of Americans say fake news has eroded their trust in those sources.
- 70% of Americans feel that print news outlets, including magazines, provide them with trustworthy news, and only 37% believe social media outlets can provide trustworthy news.
- Of the 8,000 people surveyed overall, 72% believe print magazines are the most trusted news sources, closely followed by other traditional outlets such as print newspapers, TV, and radio news.
- Online-only news outlets are “trusted less” by 41% of news audiences. The online channels of print and broadcast media are trusted less too, the study found.
Images: TechCrunch, The New York Times
Media Metrics is a monthly feature from Technology for Publishing, aimed at keeping you armed with the latest industry data. If you’d like to share something you’ve read, drop us a note. And keep up with the latest industry news coverage by signing up for our This Week in Publishing emails and our Publishing Innovations newsletter.
Posted by: Monica Murphy
