Ad revenue analysis

Fascinating new analysis from Infometrics reveals the ever-changing revenue streams in New Zealand media.

Infometrics has charted overall annual revenue – for digital, television, newspapers, radio and other platforms – for the past 32 years, since 1991.

No surprises in that it reveals declines for television and newspapers, while radio revenue is more stable. Magazines are also declining while outdoor advertising is on the rise.

But none of the trends – positive or negative – are quite like the “unstoppable rise of digital”, says Infometrics.

“However, it was only in the 2021 calendar year that digital surpassed combined non-digital ad spending on other media,” writes Infometrics chief executive and principal economist Brad Olsen.

“By 2023, digital ad spending totalled $1.87 billion, a 4.9 per cent pa increase on the previous year. Spending on digital-only ads in 2023 totalled just over $370 million more than non-digital ad spending combined.

“Non-digital spend totalled $1.49b, down 7.3 per cent from a year before.”

Within the non-digital space, television revenue comes out top – $534m in 2023, an 11 per cent decline on the previous year.

Industry insiders expect this number to fall by another $70m this year – a number that is driving many of the cost-cutting decisions at our major networks.

In 2023, newspaper revenues were $297m – also down 11 per cent – while radio ad revenues were $267m, and stable.

Olsen said everyone knew digital was huge, “but I think a lot of people (including myself) think that all the other media combined still get a larger total sum of ad spending. I think everyone thinks that together, all media ad spend dominates digital still – but it doesn’t”.

“Digital is now larger all by itself than all other ad spending combined.”

Infometrics also went back to 1964 to show ad spending compared to GDP.

“Ad spending as a share of GDP has been falling since 2006, from 1.3 per cent down to a low of 0.7 per cent in the March 2021 year,” says the Infometrics report.

“Although there was a slight rally over 2021/22 and 2022/23, back to above 0.8 per cent of GDP, the latest figures for 2023 year saw a fall back to 0.75 per cent of GDP.”

Olsen picks up this point: “The fact it’s as low as it is now, and lower in recent years than any time since the 1960s, really does show that ad spending is an easier part of spending for businesses to cut or limit – and speaks to the need for more innovative funding models for the future.”

The power of Taylor Swift

There were many highlights, for both NZME and MediaWorks, in yesterday’s radio survey results - and also a few “work-ons”.

I’ve been closely watching the battle between ZM and The Edge over the years - NZME is certainly ecstatic about ZM’s performance which has seen its cumulative audience (537,400) overtake The Edge (510,900) for the first time.

MediaWorks will be happy with the performance of most of its other music stations, in particular The Rock, Mai FM, and Magic - all helping that business achieve a 51.5 per cent commercial share.

But ZM’s rise has been telling, on the back of consistently strong Breakfast and Drive shows, live events - and Taylor Swift.

As Media Insider reported in February, ZM was inundated with tens of thousands of calls over many weeks as it gave away the real-life equivalent of Willy Wonka golden tickets - airfares, hotel accommodation and passes to Taylor Swift’s Australian concerts.

Having now attracted such a big audience, ZM will be focused on retaining it.

In a press release, NZME radio boss Jason Winstanley said he was “particularly proud” of ZM and its result.

“NZME has put a huge amount of energy and resource into delivering the most loved and listened to content, investing in attracting the best radio hosts in the country and complementing our on-air offering with strong digital platforms that are an extension of our much-loved radio brands. All of this has led to the growth we are seeing in the results today, with some of our biggest stations showing consistent growth.”

Voyager Media Awards: Who, what to watch for

New Zealand journalism’s big day has dawned. The annual Voyager Media Awards tonight give the industry some respite from an annus horribilis.

As we collectively dust ourselves off from an unprecedented wave of cuts – and the loss of an entire news organisation – tonight’s event and the various after-parties are a chance to celebrate the very best in the business.

Around 420 journalists and media industry guests will gather for the black-tie event at Shed 10 on Auckland’s waterfront.

With a big cut in the number of awards comes the promise of a sleeker, more refined ceremony – Jeremy Corbett and Madeleine Sami have the unenviable task of keeping the show on the rails, and a roomful of journalists in check as much as possible.

There are many juicy categories. Here are five watch-outs:

One Good Text

This week we catch up with Jeremy Corbett, who, along with Madeleine Sami, hosts the annual Voyager Media Awards tonight.

Don’t worry about the gangs...

The Auckland Writers Festival is celebrating a record year – more than 85,000 people attended the six-day festival last week, featuring 167 events and 240 participants. Almost 11,000 books were purchased at pop-up book stalls during the festival. Hooray!

On Friday, I popped into one of those 167 sessions – a panel featuring senior journalists Jared Savage (NZ Herald) and Benedict Collins (1News) discussing their recent, respective crime books Gangster’s Paradise and Mad on Meth.

The incomparable Steve Braunias – who is on top of his writing game at the moment with pieces like this and this and this – was a brilliant panel ringleader, weaving his way across the hour with questions about the inner workings of gangs, the rise of meth and the wider travails of the New Zealand media industry. He probed them both on the recent, fatal Ponsonby Rd shooting.

It was an intelligent and thoughtful session, with lighter moments.

Savage remembers front page stories in the Herald when the police uncovered 1kg of meth.

“Police don’t get out of bed for at least 100kg these days,” he joked to laughter.

Braunias wanted Savage to list the top five gangs in New Zealand. Savage didn’t want to play that game but did list a few – Comancheros on top and then in no particular order, Hells Angels, Head Hunters, King Cobras, Rebels and the Mongols.

The audience questions were atypical of these festivals. Some oral dissertations, with barely a question in sight.

An anonymous audience member did ask a virtual question: “I live 200m from the Head Hunters headquarters – what is going on there?”

Another audience member asked if the panellists had ever feared for their safety in covering the gangs and meth.

Braunias stepped in, dryly noting that all three of them were part of a media industry where the bigger fear was the wave of an accountant’s pen ... and redundancy.