The founder of the Dubai publisher CPI envisages the majority of its business deriving from online media by the end of 2014.
Like most Middle East publishers, the company currently makes the bulk of its revenues from print titles. But despite digital media still being in its infancy in the region, CPI expects revenues from its online titles to overtake its printed magazines, which include regional editions of OK!, BBC Good Food and Filmfare.
"Over the next two to three years, I would actually see the whole business moving that way," said Dominic De Sousa, the founder of CPI. "I think it will probably be 60 per cent online, 40 per cent print."
Aside from publishing several titles under licence from international media companies, CPI also publishes Computer News Middle East, BroadcastPro Middle Eastand the construction title Big Project among others.
Mr De Sousa predicts "huge growth" in the digital advertising market, although he said he would keep a mixture of print and online titles in the future.
"Online is definitely an area that we're going to expand into. I think you'd be stupid not to," he said.
Total advertising spending in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) is estimated at about US$5 billion (Dh18.36bn) a year, although precise figures are not available.
Digital advertising revenues in the Mena region account for a tiny proportion of that. Google predicts regional total spending on digital advertising will hit $175 million this year.
CPI has more than 25 media titles. It recently launched Trade & Export Middle East, Mother, Baby & Childand Construction Machinery magazines. It has taken three of its print magazines - PCWorld, MacWorld and GameWorld Middle East - to online only.
"That was a big shift," Mr De Sousa said. "We did them initially with print, and now we've done them online as an experiment. And actually the profitabilities of those magazines are phenomenal."
He expects more of CPI's print titles to become online only.
The company, which was founded in the early 1990s, has five offices in Dubai, and Mr De Sousa said it was expanding overseas.
"We're opening offices outside, in India, and we're on the verge of closing a big deal in Kenya, and one in Qatar," he said.
Mr De Sousa - who was born in Kenya - said the office there would be a "springboard" to expand the business to the rest of Africa.
The company plans to invest in research and analytics about the media industry next year, he said.
"It's basically going to be looking at consumer spends, analysing different industry sectors."
