Good news for Dutch magazines. Media spending by advertisers rose slightly in 2021. Almost 11 million more was earned by Dutch publishers. The results are a lot better than in 2020, when more than 59 million euros less was advertised in Dutch magazines.
The annual report Media Spending 2021 from research agency Nielsen is out. This shows that companies are again advertising more in Dutch magazines. The 11 million growth in 2021 alone is not big enough to make up for the huge loss of 59 million from 2020.
In the few years before 2020, advertising revenues for Dutch publishers were fairly stable. The corona crisis has changed that. Slowly you see the magazine industry crawling out of the corona valley.
Gross media spend in print
Advertising budgets are increasingly shifting from traditional to digital channels. It makes sense, with the increasing use of digital media, advertisers are tracking the behavior of their target audiences. The graph below shows the gross media expenditure in magazines from the past ten years. In 2011, the total amount of gross media spending in magazines was €417.9 million. This amount decreased to €178.3 million in 2020 and slightly increased to €189.9 million in 2021.
Long term trend
This downward trend has been going on for 10 years. In the graph below you can also see that the amount of ads is falling, as are the budgets per advertiser. The amount of advertisements in 2011 was 62,750, of which less than half will be left in 2021, namely 30,287. With the decrease in the amount of advertisements, you also see a downward trend in the average budget per advertiser. That was €67,222 in 2011 and this amount has fallen sharply in 2021 to €36,338.
Women’s and sports magazines in particular suffer losses
It is mainly the women’s magazines and sports magazines that suffer the greatest losses. Gross media spending in this category has been declining steadily for years. In 2011, €130.5 million was spent on advertisements in women’s magazines. That fell below €100 million in 2014 and below €60 million in 2019. In 2021 there was still €41.5 million left. The sports magazines are also suffering a lot from the declining advertising income. From over 15 million in 2012 to 2.6 million in 2021.
DGP benefits most from growth
Advertisers’ advertising money is mainly spent with the large magazine publishers in the Netherlands. DPG Media accounts for almost 19.9% of the market share. The publisher also benefits from the improving advertising market. The market share increases by 3.9% compared to 2020.
It is striking that almost all magazine publishers in the Netherlands see their advertising income fall. Only three publishers are benefiting from the growth: One Business, New Skool Media and DPG media. “Almost all DPG Media magazines had a very good 2021,” says Berry Punt, researcher at Nielsen. “At New Skool Media, it was mainly the larger magazines that generated significantly higher advertising revenues and the flagship ONE Business also did great business last year. All three publishers benefited from strongly increased media budgets from retailers, and DPG Media and New Skool Media also benefited from the recovery of spending in the hospitality, leisure and tourism sectors.”
The Annual Report Gross Media Spending of Nielsen, can be ordered by sending an email to [email protected]