The Enduring Power of Print

 2025 was a year of resilience and innovation for the print media landscape, continuing to demonstrate its value through trusted engagement, attention and measurable results 📬.

Trust and attention were two of last year’s biggest buzzwords - and print media excels at delivering both thanks to its tangible, credible nature 🗞️✨

This week, Lisa Wildish, Senior Print Director, unpacks why print is still one of the smartest plays for Entrepreneurial Brands in 2026, and how planning early, using data-led targeting and optimising inserts can turn trusted attention into measurable growth 🚀

📉 A Round-Up of the Print Media Landscape

Despite wider market volatility, print has shown impressive resilience through 2025.

1. Door Drops spend has remained strong 💪: The latest DMA x JICMAIL Door Drop Report shows 2024 spend grew +5.5% to £182.2m, building a stable pipeline into 2025. Early indications suggest the channel is holding up well, even with postage costs rising.

2. Letterbox media delivered impact through trust, attention and action ✉️✨ JICMAIL reports Direct Mail hit a five-year high and attention time is rising. Meanwhile, Marketreach’s Trust Factor shows trust drives outcomes: 92% act when they trust a brand and 74% take commercially impactful actions. Direct Mail stands out as the most trusted channel, perceived as reliable, secure and personal.

3. Publishing continues to evolve, but print retains a pivotal role🗞️The channel benefits from trusted heritage – particularly among older audiences. While niche interest sectors that readers actively seek out for inspiration are staying strong. Subscriptions, for instance, remained resilient: titles such as Good Housekeeping, Radio Times and The Economist saw only a 2% YoY decline. Newsworks’ research also shows high-attention media delivers 58% more attentive seconds per £. For Entrepreneurial Brands, that’s a strong signal to prioritise quality attention, not just reach.

4. Inserts show stable momentum and greater strategic integration 📄🚀 Inserts continue to prove their value as a cost-efficient lever, increasingly used inside broader campaigns (not just pure DR). The sweet spot remains format efficiency (often 2pp–4pp), with planning discipline needed to account for longer lead times when relevant.

So, what's in store for 2026? 🔮

Looking ahead, 2026 will reward brands that plan early, use data more intelligently and focus on optimisation over expansion.

With further Royal Mail price increases expected and extended paper lead times (8-12 weeks for some stocks), early planning becomes a competitive advantage. Brands that lock in costs early will protect budgets and avoid reactive decision-making later in the year.

As costs rise, data-led strategy will separate good from great. Print works best when insight informs who you speak to, what you say and how you say it vs. a one-size-fits-all. Entrepreneurial brands that tailor messaging for different audiences, particularly new versus existing customers, will unlock stronger response and better commercial outcomes.

The inserts market is unlikely to change dramatically this year. However, with fewer new high-volume distributions entering the market, opportunities to reach entirely new audiences are more limited - particularly for established advertisers. Smarter title selection, refined frequency and more distinctive creative will drive performance. Continuous testing and creative optimisation are no longer optional, they are essential.

Continuous testing will remain critical across all print channels in 2026. That means trialling new titles and distributions, running A/B tests across formats, offers and creative to set clear baselines, and refreshing creative to prevent wear-out. In 2025, our optimisation using VAS eye-tracking drove over 100% uplifts in insert response rates, proving the impact of evidence-led creative decisions.

Print also works hardest as part of an integrated journey. Reach is no longer linear and while circulations decline overall, engagement remains strong with trusted brands, especially Saturday newsbrands and stable commuter titles like Metro. The 2026 opportunity is tactical offline planning supported by online and email, integrating with print to extend reach, reinforce messaging and maximise engagement.