What Cox’s acquisition of Axios means (from a number of different commentators) PLUS 82% of users prefer lighter ad experience and what that means for you

August 09, 2022

Obviously Axios had been considering a sale for a while, but the buyer in this case was a surprise - well at least for me. It continues the roll-up of digital media, a consolidation story that has been going on for several years now. In addition to a quick review of the coverage of the acquisition, we have stories from the Press Gazette about the opportunity provided by NFTs and another story about how publishers are embracing Instagram’s shift to reels and video.

Press Gazette has been reporting on British journalism without fear or favour since 1965. Our mission is to provide a news and information service which helps the UK journalism.

I count myself as an NFT sceptic, but Evolok has a paper in the Press Gazette looking at eight opportunities that non-fungible tokens offer publishers (even though sales of NFTs have fallen by 92% from September 2021 to May 2022). I’m always willing to entertain opinions that differ from mine, but I do see an opportunity to gain more data about audiences. That being said, I wonder if there are other opportunities that are easier and more clearly exchange value.

Cox will accelerate expansion into more cities, more national topics and more premium content.

Investment into faster growth of Axios Local seems to be one of the themes of the acquisition. Axios launched with the promise of premium content and subscriptions, and those plans were limited to some extent by the pandemic. With the acquisition, they would have the resources to invest in that part of their strategy.

Axios Local is on track to hit its 2022 goal of launching 24 city-specific weekday newsletters ahead of schedule.

Rick Edmonds at Poynter adds some more detail saying that Axios Local will use the acquisition to launch in 100 cities with its ‘smart brevity’ strategy.

Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises has spent the past decade selling off most of its media properties as it brings in billions from cable. So why dive back in?

Cox used to be one of the major media conglomerates owning both newspapers and TV stations before focusing on the cable business. Josh Benton provides an excellent potted history of the Cox business as a family-owned newspaper company that expanded into radio and then cable, where most of its efforts are focused. This is the backgrounder in the trio of pieces.

In March, Vox Media expanded the purview of Pauley’s role beyond ad sales to also encompass consumer revenue, affiliate and commerce businesses.

It gives him a larger view of the organisation and ways to increase revenue, and Pauley also talks about how revenue is shifting as the economy turns.

Press Gazette has been reporting on British journalism without fear or favour since 1965. Our mission is to provide a news and information service which helps the UK journalism.

For those publishers who had a strong presence on the platform, they are seeing recommendations drive increased reach.

News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication

Another story about how subscriptions are driving revenue as economies reopen.

Press Gazette has been reporting on British journalism without fear or favour since 1965. Our mission is to provide a news and information service which helps the UK journalism.

It helps to have a rich benefactor too.

Adblocking on desktop is on the rise again. It has rebounded close to the earlier, all-time-high 2018 levels, according to the 2022 PageFair Adblock Report from adblock revenue recovery company Blockthrough. Desktop adblocking growth slowed in 2016-2018, and then declined over 2018-2020. It started growing again over the last two years reaching 290M active users …

But global opt-in rate for acceptable ads is 95% so the goal has to be finding what audiences find acceptable.

More than a number, more like a feeling

It’s a feeling, but CJ Gustafson also offers up the metrics that he pays attention to when looking for market fit.