InsightThe best industry thinking and M&M insight

Feature

Don‘t stop the printing press

The strength of TV and online media is constantly touted to be one of Latin America’s greatest strengths, but writing off print could prove to be a bad move. By David Hing

Marketers may be shifting more adspend online, but television remains a stalwart giant. In Brazil for example, TV media devours more than two thirds (67.5%) of the market’s adspend according to ZenithOptimedia, a figure that is reflected across neighbouring regions.

It’s easy to assume that print is in decline in Latin America and gallantly stepping aside to allow the new digital world to arrive, but this is far from the case. In a recent study, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) predicted that newspaper revenue in Latin America will grow by 4.7% every year through to 2015. The print market is expected to take a combined total of $9.2bn over this period.

Newspaper circulation in Latin America has increased by at least 5% since 2005. According to Datafolha, 73% of Brazilians prefer to get their news from print media rather than online.

Not going out of print

There’s a temptation to lump all countries in Latin America under a single category, but the individual markets behave very differently. Although Brazil has a relatively low percentage of its adspend taken up by print media (19.5%), Argentina’s newspapers take a much larger proportion with approximately 30% according to GroupM.

As well as newspapers, the magazine market is seen as promising enough to attract large publishers. Figures from Deloitte show that subscriptions to print magazines doubled in 2011 from 2010 making it unsurprising that an international publishing powerhouse like Condé Nast is continuing to invest in the region. Through a partnership with local publisher Globo, it launched a localised version of Glamour in Brazil earlier this year and already publishes versions of GQ and Vogue in the region. Conde Nast’s chairman Jonathan Newhouse describes entering the rapidly developing Latin American market as a natural step.

The death of print is always exaggerated by doomsayers but the digital age invites adaptation, not destruction. Latin America’s approaching digital boom and rapid development as it emerges as a market looks set to greatly benefit its print media industry.