The Indy's A2K - Anonymous to Known - Strategy part of publishers' shift from scale to connection PLUS

October 06, 2022

With the rise of reader revenue as an important pillar of a sustainable content business, publishers have realised that an important part of that strategy is shifting users from unknown to known. And in this shift, successful publishers have realised that in the digital era they can build a business off of the base of a much smaller group of known users than much larger audiences of unknown users. This was in sharp focus at WAN-IFRA's recent World News Media Congress in Spain.

And as publishers get to know more about their audiences, data is critical to this strategy, and it's leading publishers to rethink their products and revenue strategies. Case in point, both the Independent and The Telegraph are cutting the number of ads that they display. If you're in a scale business where every eyeball counts, whether known or unknown, then maximising ads and ad impressions is a critical goal, but if you're in a business in which that connection with your audience is key, then you'll want to keep the experience as excellent as possible. Read on as we also look at how GDPR and a clampdown on third-party cookies is also driving this rethink.

Plus, research on news avoidance and the rise of non-profit news organisations in the US as well as new analytics tools being rolled out by YouTube.

Madeleine White, Content Marketing Manager at Poool, the all-in-one Membership & Subscription Suite, shares her findings of the key challenges for publishers in 2022 and how publishers are working to solve them. WAN-IFRA’s World News Media Conferences are widely attended by publishing professionals from around the world, and it’s easy to see why. In the …

Madeleine of French membership and subscription company Poool highlights some of the best insights from WAN-IFRA's recent media conference in Spain. Here's just one. Héctor Aranda, CEO at Clarin (the largest media conglomerate in Argentina), said that out of their 28m readers, only a half million are subscribers. But those half million account for 70% of their reader revenue.

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.

This was a fascinating panel during Press Gazette's recent Future of Media Technology in London. Publishers are having to adapt their strategies due not only to GDPR but also because of shifts by Google, Apple and other major platform players such as the elimination of third-party cookies. This is leading publishers not only to cut then umber of ads but also to audit their adtech providers so that they stay on the right of the law and also delivery good experiences to their audiences.

Social Media Today

A good review of new analytics tools for YouTube. With engagement metrics becoming more important in the mix of KPIs, YouTube has rolled out new insights that help publishers and video producers understand not only broadly what people are searching for but also what they are watching.

Media Research: News avoidance and trends in non-profit news

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.

If there was one thing that I found out in my master's is that you need to dig deeper with qualitative research to find out not just what people are doing but why they are doing it. In research from the Reuters Institute, they say that the issue for publishers isn't that young people aren't interested in news but rather that they experience it in a kind of 'brand soup'. This is something I've cautioned both clients and employers to be aware of. Social media can bring new audiences, but the challenge is to actually ensure that these social media audiences actually become aware of your brand. It's not always happening.

The local sector of nonprofit news is growing rapidly, with an average of nearly one launch per month for each of the past three years.

New research in the US that shows that non-profit news organisations are more common in urban than rural areas.

Spotify announced it's acquiring Ireland-based content moderation tech company Kinzen to help it address content moderation issues.j

Mark Little has his second exit. First he sold Storyful to News Corp, and now he's sold Kinsmen to Spotify. Well done.

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.

Major UK publishers, including Reach, warned that regulation creating ad blocklists could push publishers towards more clickbait content.

Don’t let text get all the SEO love. Follow these optimizing tips so your images shine in the eyes of search engines. – Content Marketing Institute

A great guide on how to optimise your images for SEO.