Christopher Scott’s Post

Publishers around the world are facing a constant battle: balance profit with a great user experience. Intrusive ads, autoplay videos, and unrelated blog links at the bottom of the articles – we've all seen it before. In this blog post, we dive into the context of how we got here, highlight some of the key challenges publishers face today, and what can be done to improve engagement and increase revenue. https://lnkd.in/d-mmtxm7

The MMM Era is upon us! I repeat, MMM! We’re in our MMM Era, and it’s not as cool as the Eras Tour. No, we’re in the Mass Media Mistrust era. Should you or should you NOT use news sources within your online website content? Should you stick to well-known agencies? Do people even trust those anymore? I dive into these issues in this little piece, but it's more for opening conversation. Let me know your thoughts on the topic!

The 'Iron Law of Digital Media' continues to playout in all sectors of #media. 1. As the cost to produce and distribute digital media approaches zero, https://lnkd.in/gmTAVYNw https://lnkd.in/g_dtVtSz 2. The volume of media produced and distributed approaches infinity, https://lnkd.in/g7-vhqWa 3. Therefore the value of each marginal unit of media approaches zero. https://lnkd.in/gxNw-WtM https://lnkd.in/gGMmPU6J Therefore: A. The only way to survive in the media business is to REDUCE content volume and RAISE prices. or B. All media eventually becomes advertising. 

Take a Moment! Funding great journalism has never been more important(*). So it makes me very proud that we have built a solution to bring a vertical video TikTok experience - and budgets - to the open web: Outbrain Moments! And the first results speak for themselves: 56% higher brand recall than display ads and when combined with digital ads, 126% higher message recall than social ads alone. And for publishers: discover how this innovation is empowering publishers to engage audiences more effectively on AdExchanger. (*) In the latest elections, the majority of young voters (18-24) voted for the far right (AfD in Germany, FPÖ in Austria) while democracy was hold up by the age group 60+! How sad and scary is this. And why is this? POLITICO concluded: "But there are also more intangible factors, linked to the fact that many young people experience politics solely via social media platforms like X and TikTok where far-right content glorifying the “Great Replacement” theory and linking immigration to violence runs unchecked." Democracy dies in darkness. Unchecked social media platforms are the darkness. Let's bring audiences and budgets back to great journalism!

I talked to lots of folks at Possible this week who know and love what Ad Fontes Media is *about* (news! charts! reducing polarization! supporting journalism!) but don’t know what our actual product and business model is. Which is fair! I say lots on this platform about what we learn from our work and that brands should advertise in high-quality news, but I rarely explain how our product enables doing exactly that. Also, our product has evolved a lot in the last year. For abundant clarity, our primary product for advertisers is for programmatic media buyers, and it consists inclusion segments of high-quality news at the domain, URL, and app level. We’ve rated almost 11,000 news & information sources for reliability and bias, and we rate over 100,000 new articles per day with a combination of human analysts and AI. Content that rates high for reliability and low for bias is automatically identified and included in our segments in substantially real-time. You can essentially buy ads on all available content at the top middle of the Media Bias Chart. (Technical part for the ad tech-knowledgeable coming up) This means a media buyer who wants to advertise in news can simply select our segments in DSPs (most notably and directly in The Trade Desk, as a contextual segment) or as a deal ID in SSPs (including Microsoft Curate and Pubmatic). You can run campaigns on digital and CTV this way! We charge a low CPM for use of these segments, which is one of the primary ways we monetize our data on news source reliability and bias. This is our business model! We’re not *just* a cheerleader for news. Our inclusion segments let brands easily test new campaigns and execute them long-term on just the highest quality news, including local. All available data shows that the only “news” that’s actually risky to brands is low reliability and highly polarizing content, and our segments enable you to steer clear of those, so you can experience all the benefits of advertising in news content (low CPMs, unduplicated reach, high-value audiences) without any of the drawbacks. Hopefully you reacted with a hearty “ohhhh, now I get it” and what we do is a mystery to you no more. We do have other products and services for publishers, educators, and more, but this is our deal in the ad industry. If we can help you buy some news ads now, let us know!

FYI: Google restricts new publications in Publisher Center: Google yesterday announced changes within Publisher Center. This update aims to simplify the process for publishers and ensure a more consistent approach to how content appears in Google News and across news surfaces. #digitalmarketing #marketing

one of the biggest mistakes i see from publishers: not owning your Ad content. why would you let advertisers dictate the messaging to your audience? the cookie-cutter content they give you can perform poorly. remember that you know your audience better than anyone else. they trust your voice. here’s how you can own your Ad content (and make it perform better): 1. set expectations right away that you control the Ad content 2. set Ad content guidelines that you’ll work within 3. always write the copy and design Ads in house (or with a contractor you’ve hired on) 4. allow input from the Advertiser, but don’t let them revise more than 2 times 5. incorporate your company values into the Ad content 6. get personal, use social proof, or involve your audience in the content to increase your performance 7. be prepared to say no to the Advertiser if they want full control (will tank trust with your audience if you don’t) 8. don't let them dictate editorial... EVER talk about a performance bomb 💣

Quality content ➕ a multi-level paywall ➡ financial independence Financial independence ➡ editorial independence ➕ quality journalism 👍 As a result of technological evolution and market changes, most media companies have lost a significant percentage of their revenue. Advertisers have turned to social media platforms instead of newspapers or news sites. 💡 That is why more and more media companies with online outlets rely more on their readers. We can only applaud WAN-IFRA, the World Association of News Publishers for highlighting the best practices, as it further emphasizes the importance of forward-thinking in media. 👏 Recently, we have collected 7 reasons why you need a multi-paywall ASAP. Click and read if you are thinking about introducing it. 👉 https://lnkd.in/d6Fi9NPK #media #publishing #paywall #bestpractice #digitalmedia #localmedia #mediarevenue #icms https://lnkd.in/dN3GNAGB

↗️ By The Numbers: Digital Subscriptions   Which publishers are winning the subscription game? A new report highlights the top 40+ digital media companies with a subscription offering, and the results may surprise.   It's true people used to subscribe to newspapers and magazines en masse. Glossy publications printed millions of copies each month. Today, that is a bygone era as screens have swallowed the world.   🤖 Big Tech convinced media years ago that "information wants to be free." But the tide is shifting toward paywalls, memberships, and subscription fees, for better or worse.   See the full report, from Toolkits, at the link in comments. Here is a breakdown of the top 20, and with a few thoughts on why they are succeeding below. ➡️ — Digital subscribers (2023-24) — •   9.7M: New York Times •   4.65M: The Athletic •   4M: Wall Street Journal •   2.9M: Consumer Reports •   2.5M: Washington Post •   1.3M: Financial Times •   1.2M: Guardian •   1.1M: The Economist •   1.1M: Barrons •   1M: The Daily Wire •   900K: The Atlantic •   850K: Outside •   700K: The Telegraph •   575K: The Times •   550K: LA Times •   500K: Bloomberg Media •   404K: The New Yorker •   330K: Insider •   256K: Boston Globe •   243K: National Geographic   Some takeaways? Major newspapers such as NYT, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Financial Times have effectively moved into the digital realm, retaining relevance and financial health through digital subscriptions. Riches in niches? The Athletic, Consumer Reports, Outside, and National Geographic demonstrate the potential for significant success in niche markets, supported by their considerable subscriber counts. In the end, readers are willing to pay for quality or special focus. The millions of digital subscribers indicate a consumer preference for quality journalism and specialized content, showing that people will pay for content despite the widespread availability of free information online.

If you think that decentralized publishing (e.g. channels like Substack) is the future, then the notion of Superformats is a pretty interesting. It seems like decentralized publishers with low overhead and direct audience connections are a way to fix many of the financial & structural issues that ail many categories of publishers. This notion of Superformats is pretty sci-fi 🔮 , but if you believe that things will go more decentralized, it holds some water. Enjoy: https://lnkd.in/gGgpf_gK