Publishers Expanding, Monetizing Their Mobile Publishing Efforts - ABC Study

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL—Nov. 7, 2011—Magazines and newspapers in the United States and Canada are becoming more confident in their strategic mobile plans as they diversify their offerings and discover new ways to derive revenue.

According to a new survey—“Going Mobile: How Publishers are Maturing and Monetizing Their Offerings” — from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) and ABC Interactive, the number of publishing companies that say they have a well-developed plan for the mobile market rose to 59 percent, up from just 28 percent in 2009. And 67 percent said it was important to their strategic future to earn revenue from both ads and subscriptions. (Download PDF of Executive Summary.)

This is the third annual mobile survey from ABC and ABCi. The accumulated data provides a unique glimpse into the evolution of the mobile market from the perspective of print publishers that are hoping to capitalize on new platforms. The 2009 version of the survey provided a hint of publishers’ initial reactions to smartphones, and the 2010 results indicated a growing preference for tablets.