Latest figures from the UK regional press group demonstrate how hard it is for digital success to make a dent in a traditional business.
So for the full year 2007 revenue was £193m up 1.4% (not a bad performance in the current market). Digital revenue for the year – £2.1m up 91.1% or around 1.1% of total.
For the first half of 2008 and digital revenue was now up 63%, and total revenue was down 5%.
A quick bit of maths (completely untied to any meaningful analysis of their business or market) shows how this might pan out – if their traditional revenues fall at 5% while digital growth slows down to a credible 31% – they will have lost £30m from the top line by 2012.
You can obviously tweak these numbers however you like. It just shows the maths of how difficult it is to keep the business looking healthy when the core slips and your digital revenues have yet to reach a meaningful scale.
Archant announcement (.pdf)
PrintWeek – Archant posts steady results despite troubled sector
Brand Republic: Archant profits down despite improved digital performance
Filed under: Media | Tagged: newspapers
[...] did some of the numbers on this when I took a quick look at Archant – a UK newspaper group with small but rapidly growing digital revenue. You’re losing, say [...]