The UK Association of Online Publishers (AOP) released its annual Organisation Census today and although you have to be a member of the AOP to read the full report, you can see an in depth overview of the census data in this release at econsultancy.

The census had a 100% response rate and it seems thing are looking up for online publishers in 2010 with hiring, new product development and a general sense of optimism back on deck.

I can certainly attest to the fact it has been a tough 2 years since the general economy and traditional media took a nose dive. Our original business plans had to be put on hold for a while given frozen budgets and a general uncertainty amongst online publishers. But I can support some of the optimism in the census data as we are back in meeting rooms giving presentations and lining up pilot programs for our real time analytics service publishflow™.

So of all the data in the census 2010, what are the three biggest challenges facing online publishers, with which they require help?

1. Mobile services development (51% of respondents)
2. Measurement of ROI (41% of respondents)
3. Database development and utilisation (40% of respondents)

This is a very good time to be a start up either looking to set up as an online publisher (maybe someday for us) OR to supply software and services to online publishers trying to take care of the three concerns above (today for us).