Here's another terrifying article about the immediate and long-term effects of tariffs on the publishing industry, this time from Digiday.

Publishers watch warily as tariffs loom over ad budgets and print costs

Publishers are watching the potential fallout of President Trump’s tariffs with guarded pragmatism, uneasy about the potential ad revenue fallout but not making any knee-jerk changes to forecasting.

That might be because, after years of navigating shifting ad markets, platform changes, and economic headwinds including multiple recessions and the COVID-19 pandemic, they’ve simply grown used to rolling with the punches.

It could also just be the calm before the storm.  All are keeping a watchful eye on the outcome of the sustained macroeconomic shock that will likely arise as a direct result should they ever be established, which will raise consumer costs and reduce consumer confidence. Trump said on Wednesday that he was delaying some tariffs by 90 days and increasing China’s to 124% from 104%. “It’s unlikely that won’t have a detrimental effect on marketing budgets, and we’re not reading any signals that suggest the tariffs are only a short-term policy,” said one senior executive at a major global news publisher, who agreed to speak in exchange for anonymity.

For now, there have been no hasty revising of forecasts, and buyer signals haven’t spooked anyone just yet. There is a consensus that there is an increased appetite among buyers for direct deals, but that’s a trend that had already been well underway. 

“Ad revenues will be weaker than they would have been if the policies were not put in place,” said Brian Wieser, CEO and principal of media consulting firm Madison and Wall, “but the broad trends that were already in place — with limited growth for ‘open web’ publishers — continuing.” 

Most publishers are bracing for how marketers will react to the spike in costs that will hit their supply chains, and any potential knock-on effect that has to advertising budgets being trimmed.

Read the entire article here.