The Weekly Bulletin | July 1, 2025

Hi SODP community,

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

TIP OF THE WEEK

You’ve got 3 seconds – or you’ve lost your reader. That’s why dwell time now beats CTR as the metric that matters most for publishers.

Search and social algorithms are shifting: clicks are no longer enough. Instead, they reward content that holds attention. Chartbeat and others report a 200% YoY surge in publishers tracking scroll depth, engaged time, and attention metrics.

CTR shows interest. Dwell time shows value.

It’s the difference between a visitor skimming a headline and someone staying to consume your story. HubSpot notes that 55% of visitors spend fewer than 15 seconds on a page – if you don’t hook them immediately, they bounce, and the algorithm notices.

This “3-second rule” is more than a headline gimmick – it’s how modern content survives.

🔧 How to boost dwell time on your stories:

• Hook-driven intros: Make your first few lines irresistible. Summarise the “so what” fast.

• Interactive assets: Drop in videos, charts, polls, or timelines. Break up the scroll and earn more minutes.

• Scroll-triggered CTAs: Turn deep readers into subscribers. Place CTAs after key engagement points – not just at the top or bottom of the page.

📌 Here are the takeaways for publishers:

1. Dwell time > CTR: Focus on holding attention, not just earning the click.

2. Depth beats virality: Algorithms favour scroll depth, time-on-page, and return visits.

3. Engagement is the new growth engine: Improve it with sharp intros, dynamic assets, and smart CTA placements.

SODP POSTS

Technology To Enforce Teen Social Media Ban is ‘Effective’, Trial Says. But This is at Odds With Other Evidence

Technologies to enforce the Australian government’s social media ban for under 16s are “private, robust and effective”. That’s according to the preliminary findings of a federal government-commissioned trial that has nearly finished testing them.

The findings, released today, may give the government greater confidence to forge ahead with the ban, despite a suite of expert criticism. They might also alleviate some of the concerns of the Australian population about privacy and security implications of the ban, which is due to begin in December.

For example, a report based on a survey of nearly 4,000 people and released by the government earlier this week found nine out of ten people support the idea of a ban. But it also found a large number of people were “very concerned” about how the ban would be implemented. Nearly 80% of respondents had privacy and security concerns, while roughly half had concerns about age assurance accuracy and government oversight.

The trial’s preliminary findings paint a rosy picture of the potential for available technologies to check people’s ages. However, they contain very little detail about specific technologies, and appear to be at odds with what we know about age-assurance technology from other sources.

From facial recognition to hand movement recognition

The social media ban for under 16s was legislated in December 2024. A last-minute amendment to the law requires technology companies to provide “alternative age assurance methods” for account holders to confirm their age, rather than relying only on government-issued ID.

The Australian government commissioned an independent trial to evaluate the “effectiveness, maturity, and readiness for use” of these alternative methods.

The trial is being led by the Age Check Certification Scheme – a company based in the United Kingdom that specialises in testing and certifying identity verification systems. It includes 53 vendors that offer a range of age assurance technologies to guess people’s ages, using techniques such as facial recognition and hand-movement recognition.

READ MORE

JOB BOARD

➡️CNN is seeking a seasoned and versatile editor to help drive and execute coverage from their powerful Justice reporting team for all platforms who not only excels at covering breaking news on tight deadlines but also at guiding original reporting and shaping ambitious enterprise pieces. (USA). SEE MORE

➡️ The i Paper is seeking a news editor to help lead its team of high impact reporters, one of the most important in the newsroom, and to also help lead and inspire their award-winning team of reporters, ensuring their output is having maximum digital impact. (London). SEE MORE

COMMUNITY BUZZ

Industry News

➡️ “People create content for two reasons: to make money or to get famous. If we don’t fix the economics, the internet dies.” When I stumbled upon Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince making this stark statement on LinkedIn this week, it immediately stopped me scrolling. It wasn’t just dramatic; it succinctly captured a fundamental truth that every marketer and content creator instinctively knows but rarely states so bluntly. READ MORE 

➡️ Google has revamped its Search Console insights report; it now is integrated as a tab within the main Search Console reporting tool, plus the reporting for Search Console insights have been updated and redesigned. Integrated within Search Console. Google said it is now “integrated directly into the main Search Console interface, replacing the current standalone beta experience.” READ MORE 

➡️ Many publishers, content creators and website owners currently feel like they have a binary choice — either leave the front door wide open for AI to consume everything they create, or create their own walled garden. But what if there was another way? At Cloudflare, we started from a simple principle: we wanted content creators to have control over who accesses their work. If a creator wants to block all AI crawlers from their content, they should be able to do so. READ MORE 

Social Media Discussions

➡️ Adam Gent on LinkedIn:

We've noticed something interesting at Indexing Insight.

Forgotten URLs switch between indexing states every couple of days.

At Indexing Insight for every monitored URL we track the following historic indexing states:

Why?

Because it helps our customers understand if a page URL is being actively forgotten and when it started to be actively forgotten in Google Search.

But that's not the interesting part.

What's interesting is that for page URLs that have not been crawled in a long time (4-6 months), it seems that indexing states start to switch.

• Crawled - currently not indexed

• Discovered - currently not indexed

• URL is known to Google

'Discovered - currently not indexed' to 'URL is Unknown to Google' to 'Discovered - currently not indexed' to 'URL is Unknown to Google' etc...

It does this dance every couple of days. And we're able to track it for any monitored page URL in Indexing Insight.

CONTINUE READING

These are the highlights for the last week.

Until next!

Vahe Arabian and the editorial team at SODP