Mobile and online publishing feeling the crunch

‘BANK CRASH PROFIT FEARS’ yelled the headline on the Evening Standard news-stand as I passed by the newsagents at lunchtime today.

Which bank is it this week, I wondered. Hmm. Oh well, nothing new there. I filed it with the other good news I’ve heard today: 'British Gas raise energy bills', 'Mortgage loans reach record low'... and so it goes on, this cheery litany. As we drift through summer, the optimists are not in clover.

Meanwhile, back on Planet Digital, we remain relatively untouched by the economic downturn that has been rolling out globally in the wake of the US sub-prime meltdown. The last dotcom crash seems long ago, business is good... but we don’t exist in a vacuum.

The trends and facts uncovered by next week’s Quarterly Analysis for Digital Pulse – our confidence and attitudinal index for the digital industries – shows the impact the credit crunch is having – and some industries are feeling it more than others (BTW, you can see the first in-depth Quarterly Analysis here).

Online publishing – consistently the least optimistic sub-sector since we started the Digital Pulse index in March 2008 – is still bottom of the pile, reporting the strongest negative sentiment at 36% by the end of the quarter (April – June).

But others are joining them, and our friends in the Mobile sector are the next part of the digital industry whose confidence is shrinking, registering a 9.4% drop in confidence between May and June 2008.

Why is this? Maybe due to a high ratio of mobile businesses developing services largely dependent on advertising? Or maybe fearing a recoil from mobile initiatives by less savvy agencies, marketers and brands? I’m not sure... what’s your theory?

Either way, the trends reveal valuable information for anyone running a business in the digital space. We’ll update you when the full Quarterly Analysis for April-June is released next week.

For now, please do take the Digital Pulse survey – it’s only six questions.

Also, for every survey completed, we’ll donate 25p to the WWF (World Wildlife Fund).

Instead of relying on instinct, anecdotal evidence and headlines from external industries - add your experience to the fascinating picture we’re compiling of the changing mood of the UK digital industry.

Then you can make your experience count for something greater than just you and me and today’s grim headlines...

Take the survey here: http://www.chinwag.com/digitalpulse