Business publisher Wilmington, once a Press Gazette owner, says 72 percent of its 2010/11 publishing income came from digital – up from 45 percent in 2005/06.
“We are generating much better margins from our electronic/online activities than from the legacy print products and building long term, high value and defensible revenue streams,” the group says In its annual earnings disclosure.
“Many print products have already migrated to digital and we intend to migrate the majority of our remaining print product to an electronic/online environment within the new few years. Accordingly we have closed 16 print titles in July 2011, absorbing most of their content into new digital products whilst reducing the
overhead base of the relevant divisions.”
All of which makes Wilmington an interesting, if unsexy, case study. The group, whose products include Axco Insurance Information Services and Solicitors Journal, says most of the companies it has acquired have been wholly digital and: “Our digital businesses have proved extremely resilient during the economic downturn.”
“We are accelerating our already good progress with the digital evolution of the products in those businesses which were historically print based and are investing in improved technology and deeper content to mitigate their declining legacy print products,” the group says.
“This continuing structural transformation towards a fully digital business involves the redevelopment of websites, online technology, mobile applications, databases and content management technology.”
Pre-tax profit is up from £6.1 million last year to £7.3 million on 6.9 percent higher revenue of 6.9 percent.