Is There Life After Print?

What do Newsweek, The Village Voice, The Independent, La Presse, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) have in common? It’s certainly not geography. From Europe, to Canada, to the southern United States, each of these news outlets has gone digital-only — some earlier than others. Newsweek gave up print in 2012, while The AJC will move away from its print edition at the end of 2025. This cost-cutting strategy makes plenty of sense on paper, but does not always work out as planned.

After about a year of digital-only publication, The Village Voice shuttered its doors entirely in 2018, while Newsweek is still going. So, what’s the difference between digital dominance and prolonging the inevitable? Print still accounts for a large share of revenue, especially for magazines, so publishers need a plan to replace that income stream, which often means investing in tech.

A tougher transition for magazines

As they move into the digital world, magazines have had a more difficult battle. The transition from the daily newspaper to a 24/7 digital news cycle is easier than adapting the slower, more deliberate pace of monthly magazines. But that’s not the only hurdle magazines have had to face.

During the pandemic, Financial Times (FT) Strategies reports , “Many news websites actually benefited: those that had invested in digital content and distribution, or had already begun reader revenue endeavours, saw a huge surge in not only audience numbers but also subscriptions.”

Magazines, however, had a harder time: “The primarily physical nature of magazine publishing also resulted in a hit for the industry and in 2020, the year of Covid, the number of magazine closures outnumbered launches by almost 4:1, shrinking magazine brands by 16% year-on-year (Wessenden Marketing, ‘Good News & Bad News in 2020’s Magazine Launches’).”

Magazines have had to embrace entirely new revenue streams to stay afloat. Events and affiliate experiments have been key to filling the gap left by declining print revenue. This willingness to embrace new business models may ultimately be the difference between success and failure. But willingness isn’t always enough; publishers must be prepared with a plan.

Embracing change

Condé Nast’s publications have often served as a beacon of success in digital transitions, but it’s taken things slowly, embracing different strategies for each publication. In October, Vogue announced it would reduce the number of print issues it publishes. Vogue’s global editorial director and chief content officer for Condé Nast, Anna Wintour, told Vogue Business , “We’re investing in print to make it more special and impactful — I often call the print magazine our runway — and we’re making more space in our year to do ambitious stories on digital platforms. That’s where we can be versatile, agile and timely, and hopefully we try new things everywhere.”

Back in 2021, FT reported, Condé Nast, “...posted its first profit in years thanks to investments in digitising and streamlining its current editorial operations. The company hired around 300 product and tech staff over the last year, securing a majority-digital ad revenue.” Success like this in the digital realm requires the right tools to create the kind of experiences audiences crave.

Planning for the transition to digital

For newspaper titles, planning for a life after print can be difficult, especially for small, local publishers without the same resources as global powerhouse publishers. With this in mind, The Lenfest Institute introduced the Beyond Print Diagnostic “to provide clarity and strategic direction.”

The diagnostic is designed to help publishers use The Beyond Print Toolkit more effectively by evaluating four key areas that all publishers would be wise to consider before going digital-only:

• Digital Revenue and Financial Health: Assessing your publication’s capacity to generate sustainable digital income.
• Online Presence and Content: Evaluating the effectiveness of your digital platforms and content strategies.
• Audience Management: Examining how well you engage and retain your online readership.
• Teams, Workflows, and Technology: Reviewing the internal structures and tools supporting digital operations.

Considering these points will help publishers understand an organization's capacity to build engaged digital audiences, and develop and maintain robust new revenue streams — critical components for remaining viable in a post-print world. FT suggests, “The lifestyle aspect of magazines lends itself particularly well to revenue of this nature - unlike news which provides no such commercial outlet.”

The tools for digital success

For print newspapers the transition to sustainable digital-only news publication means finding new sources of revenue to replace the often lucrative print advertising business.

It also means reducing costs while maintaining quality and it’s here that the right technology can be the difference between success and failure in migrating to a digital-only future.

Neon – the dedicated platform for digital-first news

Allowing publishers to thrive in a post-print world is part of the vision behind Neon, Eidosmedia’s dedicated digital news platform.

Neon gives publishers powerful, flexible integration capabilities, together with multi-channel reach. Smart delivery routines distribute tailored content across websites, apps, and emerging channels, while Neon’s APIs allows seamless connection with analytics, monetization, and paywall systems, or any other tools a publisher already uses.

Extensive AI tools, both inbuilt and integrated, enable newsrooms to engage audiences more effectively, tailor experiences for different reader segments and open new opportunities for digital revenue.

Read more about Neon and how it can support your newsroom in reaching wider audiences, optimizing content and growing digital revenue.