Paying for online news content will become the new normal as newspaper publishers follow global trends seen in mature markets by building digital paywalls, a report out this morning says.
The PwC 2013 Global Entertainment and Media outlook says the digitisation of New Zealand's entertainment and media businesses is paying off, with online advertising revenues showing double-digit year-on-year growth.
PwC partner and technology industry Paul Brabin said advertising spend grew more than 12.4%, or $39 million, last year and was forecast to continue growing at an average of nearly 9% a year for the next five years to reach $542 million in 2017.
''New Zealand's entertainment and media businesses are figuring out how to further engage their audiences online, from high-quality content that consumers are willing to pay for to advertisers embracing the marketing value.''
Online was starting to become a profitable channel and by 2015 would become the second-largest medium for advertising, after television, he said.
That change had a deep effect on New Zealand media and entertainment industries as they had been regularly reviewing their strategy marketing approach.
PwC analysis also found the rise of online advertising came as money continued to move away from newspaper publishing, which would lose its top spot to television advertising for the first time this year, Mr Brabin said.
''The long-term decline in newspaper advertising revenues means newspaper brands must urgently monetise their digital channels. Pleasingly, our newspaper publishers are following global trends seen in mature markets by building digital paywalls.
''Paying for our online news content will become the new normal.''
Mobile advertising was increasing in New Zealand and had grown ''massively'' as more New Zealanders carried smartphones, he said.
