Demographic change, with its impact on customer needs such as reading habits and preferences, on sales and subscriber numbers and on the labor market, remains the most important issue for the future for 83 percent of the companies we surveyed for our "Publishing Trends 2024" study.
This is followed in second to fifth place by
- Threats to corporate security, for example through data misuse, data loss and cyber attacks
- Automation: use of artificial intelligence
- Individualization of lifestyles and customer needs and
- "New Work", i.e. everything to do with the change in working attitudes and working life.
Sustainability and climate change are becoming less important as megatrends
The topic of climate change and sustainability is no longer in the top 5. Last year it was still the main topic of the publishing study and in second place among the megatrends with 66%, just behind demographic change (67%), but this year it can only be found in sixth place in our megatrends top ten ranking.
Katja Modder
Partner, Head of Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT)
KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
Benedikt Höck
Partner, Head of AI, Strategy and Management Consulting
KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
The greatest increases in importance among the megatrends can be seen in
- Threat to corporate security from 49 to 80 percent,
- automation from 46 to 78 percent,
- geopolitical tensions (e.g. political conflicts, protectionism) from 26 to 58 percent and
- populism (polarization, discrimination, hate speech, fake news) from 34 to 62 percent.
Strategic priorities
In addition to the megatrends, our survey also looks at the strategic priorities of publishers. As in previous years, optimizing processes and improving the ability to innovate are the most important priorities for most companies. Publishers are also increasingly focusing their strategic priorities on technology, data management and IT security.
The most significant developments are in the areas of data protection, IT compliance and cyber security, which 73% of respondents see as important strategic priorities (previous year: 43%).
The strategic priorities reflect the assessment of the megatrends. For example, the high strategic importance of data protection and cyber security is a reaction to the increasing risk of cyber attacks and data loss - in second place in the megatrend ranking of our study.
The same applies to the important future topic of automation through the use of artificial intelligence: for 64% of publishers, the use of innovative technologies has a high strategic priority and is seen as an important success factor.
Focus on artificial intelligence
In this year's edition of our publishing trends, we have focused on the importance of artificial intelligence, as this technology is fundamentally changing the publishing industry through a wide range of possible applications. AI enables efficiency gains through automation, opens up new ways of producing and distributing content, helps to analyse reading preferences and supports the personalization of content offerings. AI tools can also check texts for plagiarism and thus ensure the originality of content.
It is therefore hardly surprising that the use of AI is of great strategic importance for almost 80 percent of the publishers surveyed. Over 70 percent have experience with AI - and this is largely positive. Artificial intelligence is already being used in day-to-day business by 33% of publishers, while a further 44% are in a testing and experimental phase.
However, our study not only illustrates the importance of artificial intelligence, but also provides an overview of possible applications, highlights the benefits and advantages of AI and also identifies the risks and challenges associated with the technology.
The study also provides recommendations for the use of generative AI and the steps required for implementation. A customer story about the use of AI in a large media company rounds off the study, which you can download now.
