The Weekly Bulletin | August 1, 2023

Hi SODP community,

Let’s recap on what’s been happening last week, the new content, industry updates, tips, and more.

EDITOR’S NOTE

I can’t say I was overly surprised when new research revealed that there’s less freedom of expression now than 20 years ago.

A quick look at global events over the last decade — including the rise of authoritarian governments, outbreaks of armed conflict and even the “culture war” — should be enough to explain UK-based non-governmental organization (NGO) Article 19’s findings that 80% of the global population have less freedom of expression now than at the turn of the century.

The Global Expression Report (GxR) 2023, which tracks freedom of expression across 161 countries, highlights a worrying trend about the deteriorating state of public discourse across the globe. Here are some of its main findings:

• 13% of the world’s population (1.06 billion) live what’s classed as “open” countries, down from 22% in 2020

• 9% (683 million) live in “less restricted” countries, down from 29%.

• 16% (1.24 billion) live in “restricted” countries, up from 13%.

• 28% (2.2 billion) live in “highly restricted” countries, up from 5%.

• 34% (2.71 billion) live in (crisis countries), up from 30%.

Commenting on the NGO’s findings, Article 19 executive director Quinn McKew told the Press Gazette that it’s “never been harder to be a journalist almost anywhere in the world in the past 30 years than it is right now”.

While the report singled the likes of Russia for attention, given its crackdown on the media amid the war in Ukraine, McKew also mentioned the challenges facing news organizations in “friendly countries”.

She said: “While conflicts and power grabs prominently erode democracy and human rights, much of the decline comes from consistent, incremental erosion: changes in policy in the name of misguided understandings of ‘public safety’ or ‘economic efficiency’, or gradual shifts in attitudes of those in power – in autocracies and democracies alike.”

Indeed, the media industry here in Australia has been protesting against political encroachment on press freedoms for several years.

But I’m hesitant to simply lay the problem at the door of politicians and walk away: it feels too much like a “gimme” to me. I’d argue that the fourth estate’s problems are also partially rooted in its inability to remain relevant.

I know, that’s a somewhat controversial take, but hear me out.

I’m inclined to believe that declining journalistic freedoms are connected to the decline in the public’s trust in the news. Politicians trying to “shoot the messenger” to curry favor with voters is hardly a new strategy. However, it has an outsized impact when the public’s faith in the news media is already deeply compromised.

I’d argue (and have done so) that falling trust is directly tied to the news media’s diminishing relevance to modern audiences. Audiences continue to switch from direct access for their news to social media, eroding news media’s societal standing in the process.

The issue of press freedoms, audience trust and technological relevance is an incredibly complicated subject. I’ll happily admit that this missive is too short to do the topic any real justice.

But I do believe that the media’s strength lies with its audience. Outlets that attract large audiences enjoy significant social influence and become a key component of the Habermasian public sphere, if you will.

Whether you agree or disagree, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject. The free exchange of ideas is central to developing our own perceptions and understanding.

SODP POSTS

––– SPONSORED POST –––

ADMIRAL VRM REVIEW FOR 2023

Ad blockers have proliferated rapidly since the first iteration appeared nearly 30 years ago. Nearly 36% of internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 use an ad blocker for some of their online activities.

Given that the average publisher loses around a fifth of their potential ad revenue to such software, according to some industry estimates, media companies can ill afford to turn a blind eye to this issue.

But what are publishers without much in-house technological expertise supposed to do?

Admiral, a visitor relationship management (VRM) company, believes it has the answer to that very question.

The company is one of a fairly small group of solutions providers that aim to help publishers recapture lost ad revenue.

Given that major publishers already use Admiral’s VRM platform, think CNBC and the Washington Times, we’ve gone hands on with it to understand how easy and affordable it is for smaller players to begin clawing back some that lost 20% of revenue.

SEE MORE

WHAT IS A SUPPLY SIDE PLATFORM (SSP)? A GUIDE FOR PUBLISHERS

Of all the online advertising tools and technologies that have emerged, supply-side platforms (SSPs) arguably remain some of the most important for digital publishers.

SSPs, along with demand-side platforms (DSPs) and ad exchanges, have transformed the advertising industry — making it more automated, efficient and data-driven. These key programmatic advertising components have allowed publishers to move from manually selling ad impressions to advertisers to real-time auctions.

Such advancements have seen programmatic display ad spend soar over the last decade, from $3.9 billion in 2012 to an estimated $147.1 billion in 2021. Global programmatic ad spend as a whole, meanwhile, is projected to climb from $418.4 billion in 2021 to $493 billion in 2022.

Join us as we explore what an SSP is, understand how it works, its benefits and drawbacks as well as how it differs from a DSP.

SEE MORE

JOB BOARD

➡️ Insider is hiring an acting research editor to oversee Insider's internal fact-checking program. This is a temporary, part-time position (Remote, US). SEE MORE

➡️ Apple News is looking for an editor for a 10-month contract (Sydney, Australia). SEE MORE

NEWSLETTERS WE RECOMMEND

➡️ Receive tips to help your newsletter go brrrr with 2nd Mountain newsletter. SEE MORE

➡️ Every Friday, receive 10 best resources to help you generate more income from Tim Stoddart – CEO of Stodzy Inc, owner of Sober Nation, and partner in Copyblogger. SEE MORE

COMMUNITY BUZZ

INDUSTRY NEWS

➡️ The BBC has launched its own “experimental” Mastodon server, marking one of the first major news outlets to establish an instance on the Twitter alternative. READ MORE

➡️ Following a year of historically slow growth, analysts believe the ad market is finally beginning to improve. READ MORE

SOCIAL MEDIA DISCUSSIONS

➡️ Khalil Cassimally on LinkedIn:

I'm constantly afraid that the experiments we run are going to fail. And I feel bad when some do fail. It's not the right attitude.

One of the main points of experiments, after all, is to filter out what doesn't work. Failed experiments is no measure of (in)competency.

Turns out, as much as 92% of experiments at Airbnb fail. That's ideas that don't work for users and/or the business not getting launched. A good thing.

Creating a culture of experimentation is super important if we want to continue providing value to people (even if it's become a bit of a buzz phrase). But it is hampered by fear of failure.

Note to self: embrace failed experiments, learn from them, move on to the next experiment.

SEE THE FULL POST

These are the highlights for last week.

Until next!

Andrew Kemp and the editorial team at SODP