The world's largest magazine publishers are seeing revenue increase for their online operations but not profits, a trend that has some of them concerned about the future, writes the International Herald Tribune, reporting on last week's Magazine Media 2.0 conference in Hannover, Germany.
Publishers are essentially feeling forced into online endeavors to satisfy the needs of their readers and have made significant investments, but most of the revenue has come from either ad sales or subscription referrals.

That revenue source is in jeopardy, though, as advertisers explore ways to bypass magazine publishers and connect directly with consumers.

Most of those publishers say they're still operating at a loss despite the income of online ad dollars. But the alternative is to abandon online, which is not an actual option.