4 obstacles media houses face today - Q&A with Mario Garcia

By Ninna Lauridsen | Jul 29 2015 | Events | Insights

Lessons from Visiolink Insights Day 2015.

At the Visiolink Insights Day 2015, Dr Mario Garcia, an acclaimed media guru who works on more than 700 media projects a year, gave his insights into what the future of digital publishing holds. Among other things he talked about the development the publishing industry has undergone through his many years of working with both printed newspapers and e-papers and digital publishing solutions in general.

4 obstacles media houses face today

Following Dr. Garcia's presentation, participants in Visiolink Insights Day were eager to ask him questions. They especially debated 4 obstacles media houses face today: 

  1. What is the engagement time on different devices?
  2. How do media houses deal with restrictions on digital newspapers?
  3. How do we charge money for digital newspapers?
  4. How can media houses compete with free news?

What is the time span on different devices?

"Earlier, in 1987, the average time spent on a four-section printed newspaper was approximately 23 minutes," Garcia explained. He continued to tell how recent studies show that the average time spent on a printed newspaper is 17 minutes. When combining the time spent on both printed publications and e-papers, the average time spent per day is 37 minutes. "Generally, the time spent with your brand has multiplied," Dr. Garcia concluded.

How do media houses deal with restrictions on digital newspapers?

In Garcia’s experience, for most media houses, digital circulation is up and print circulation is down. On that note, many media houses are realising that, even though it's a great product, the 1:1 replica version of the printed publication is only one element of the news media mix and cannot stand alone, Garcia explained.

How can media houses charge money for e-papers?

At the Visiolink Insights Day, it was a general concern among representatives from the European news publishing industry that readers do not want to pay for e-papers because there is so much free information available. To this question, Garcia replied, “I think there will be pay and monetisation in the future. You need to enhance the experience and people will pay. Especially when the printed version will not exist as we know it.” 

How can media houses compete with free news?

Another issue that many of the European newspaper publishers are struggling with is how to deal with all the available free news when selling subscription-based newspapers. Garcia's comment on this was pretty clear: “Start using digital advertising.” 

If you want to know more about reader behaviour, download our FREE 2015 User Survey Benchmark Report.

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Ninna Lauridsen

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Ninna Lauridsen