B2B publisher says metaverse experiment led to 150% increase in pageviews PLUS Investment flow into compan

August 11, 2022

The metaverse is buzzy right now. Is this another pivot to video driven by Facebook money? We’ll see, but a B2B magazine touts its experiment. And we look at the wildly different outcomes for investments in digital media companies. Plus a great example of product thinking at a Canadian news organisation.

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The Haymarket-owned mag basically put up a billboard in a virtual space that sounds like a mashup between Second Life and a cryptocurrency market. It led to an increase in brand awareness and pageviews, and the publication believes that it added credibility to their coverage. However, that 150% figure comes with a health warning as it is difficult to measure things in the metaverse.

Mediagazer presents the day's must-read media news on a single page.

I was fascinated by the comments from DotDash- Meredith CEO Neil Vogel who said that he doesn’t see print a s major economic driver. He sees print as a luxury good, which is definitely in line with the cost of a single-issue glossy mag anymore. The remaining print titles will be getting an upgrade to go even more premium. Working for Pugpig - a company that builds digital archives and replica editions for magazines - I also have started to see how we bring luxury experiences in digital.

A cross-departmental newsletter working group surveyed readers, who responded enthusiastically about receiving a gardening newsletter.

I love this case study in product thinking and management from Canada. Erin Lebar, the manager for audience engagement for news, talks about how they have a working group that draws from editorial, product, digital and marketing teams monitors and managers their portfolio of newsletters. And the group used an audience survey to find out what topics that people wanted to cover. In rolling out the survey, they actually drove signups to their existing newsletters and found out that there was great demand for a gardening newsletter, which has rocketed to the same number of subscribers as their long established newsletters.

It's a rare injection of high-growth capital into a company that services local newspapers.

As Axios notes, this is a rare investment in a service that serves local newspapers. Public notices in the US are an important revenue stream for the local news outlets, and those notices are an important and legally required way for local governments to provide required information out to the public. Column cuts about 50% of the cost. It shows how a smart service can still deliver and capture value.

FullStory, which is developing a platform that helps companies find issues with their apps and websites, has secured $25 million in equity financing, according to a regulatory filing.

I flag this up because it might be a useful service for you: an analytics service that helps improve website and app customer service.

Money from Meta — and the rest of Big Tech — is pouring into Washington publications.

Speaking of lucrative revenue streams for media, Peter Kafka shines a light on the corporate responsibility ads that flood Washington media. I lived in DC for more than eight years, and it’s an odd ad market. You see ads from companies looking to improve their profile with law and policy makers, or if you’re near the the Pentagon, defence contractors looking to sell their latest weapon systems. Kafka highlights how big tech spent a lot of money on ads in Axios as tech companies looked to respond to some of the bad press and regulatory scrutiny that they have faced.

The company has signed an agreement with Futuro Studios and is seeking other arrangements to fund shows

Apple and Spotify aren’t just platforms but producers as well, and this will increase the competition in this very busy space.

BuzzFeed reported its Q2 2022 earnings on August 9.

BuzzFeed’s time is running out. It needs to retool its business, and its dismal stock market performance will only ramp up the pressure for change.

"I started playing word games as a way to stop reading the news first thing in the morning."

A look at the new focus on puzzles by newspaper publishers.