Spending

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Spending on Custom Publishing
New York, NY (December 8, 2003) — The average amount that companies spend on custom publications increased 6.5% to $715,652 in 2003, compared to $671,808 in 2002, according to a new study released today by the Custom Publishing Council (CPC) and Publications Management. This is the fifth study released by the organization this year tracking market trends in custom publishing.

“Though we haven’t returned to our pre-recession high of $780,081 in 2000, custom publishing spending picked up during the economic recovery much sooner than other marketing spending as this is the second year of healthy growth and all indicators point to continued growth in 2004,” said Ed Calfo, Executive Vice President of Pace Communications and a founding member of the Custom Publishing Council.

According to the study, custom publishing spending now claims 22.2% of the total amount spent on marketing communication and advertising. This is a 1% drop from last year, which is not surprising since custom publishing as a proportion of total marketing spending grew disproportionately as a result of steeper spending reductions in other mediums during the recession.

Custom publishing spending is split between various departments within companies. Sixty-seven percent, or $485,217 comes from formal publishing departments and $220,435 from marketing, public relations, and brand management divisions. For the past four years, the percent allocated toward e-publications has consistently hovered about 20%.

Other trends found by the CPC/Publications Management survey include:

On budget size:
• Twenty-eight percent of marketers anticipate an increase of an average of 6.15% in their publications budgets. On company size:

• Smaller companies, defined as those with revenues under $1 billion, spend an average of $543,125 on publications, which equals 24.6% of a $2,207,825 marketing communications budget.

• Large companies with revenues over $1 billion spent an average of $1,110,000, which is 6.3% of a $17,460,316 budget.

Non-profits vs. for profits:
• Non-profits are much more reliant on custom publishing as a primary marketing vehicle than for profits. Custom publishing budgets represent 30% of total marketing expenditures, while for for-profits the average is 15.6%.

• In terms of actual dollars spent on custom publishing, non-profits and for profits spend similarly. Non-profits spent $727,885 while for profits spent $705,556.

The research was conducted by a mailed survey targeting a random sample of companies and industries. Among the 200 companies represented are Aetna, Alcoa, Bell South, Chubb, U.S. Census Bureau and Walgreens.

December 10, 2003