You Down With IDG? Yeah You Know Me
Steve Lohr of The New York Times writes today about publisher IDG and the state of its business. Like many magazine and newspaper publishers these days, IDG has been one that seemingly was struggling. Infoworld went online-only and Computerworld is now a fraction of its size and thickness from a few years ago.
But don’t let these print issues fool you, the Times reports that all is well with IDG who is raking in more revenue from online advertising (52%) than print advertising (48%) and is growing its revenue by 10% per year (70% of their revenue is from publications). Layoffs and killing print issues seem to just have been smart business decisions and not acts of desperation.
This article puts some debates to rest — whether online ads can replace lost print revenue, or, if there’s any hope for struggling companies publishing print publications. IDG is a niche publisher, which helps since they do have a loyal tech audience, and PC World and MacWorld are mainstays that will always do well, but it’s nice to see that there is hope for an online transition for many of the traditional tech publications we love here at LaunchSquad.
What’s become clear is that it’s not an online-offline thing — just because a publisher was never in print doesn’t mean it’s immune to the issues facing the publishing industry (see, CNET). And, on the flipside, there is hope and opportunity for formerly traditional print publishers like IDG.
I guess it’s easy to confuse struggle with change.
-
David