The Weekly Bulletin | May 20, 2025

Hi SODP community,

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

TIP OF THE WEEK

Shoppable content is more than a trend; it’s how editorial teams can monetise without compromising their storytelling.

Many publishers still treat e-commerce as a side project, tucked away behind banner ads or siloed into niche product roundups. But the gap between content and commerce is closing fast. Embedding purchase opportunities directly into articles is no longer disruptive to reader experience; it’s a value-added layer that drives revenue while serving audience intent.

This doesn’t mean turning every article into a sales pitch. It means thinking critically about where and how a product can enhance the context of your content. A product featured in a lifestyle guide, how-to tutorial, or review piece becomes part of the narrative, not a bolt-on.

Affiliate product embeds, inline recommendations, and instant checkout integrations are all viable tools, but without strategic placement and editorial integrity, they underdeliver. Effective shoppable content is not just clickable, it’s contextual. That means aligning purchase links with real user needs, building trust through transparency, and ensuring that affiliate logic doesn’t hijack the content hierarchy.

The opportunity is especially strong in niche verticals like wellness, fashion, tech, and home improvement, but general newsrooms can benefit too by monetising evergreen explainers or gift guides through product tie-ins.

However, integration must be deliberate:

• Editorial and revenue teams need joint planning cycles.

• Merchandising data must inform content calendars.

• And most critically, user journey mapping should guide placement, don’t bury CTAs at the bottom of the page or slap them into irrelevant sections.

Ultimately, shoppable content is less about technology and more about editorial mindset. Are you treating your articles as static endpoints, or as dynamic, monetisable journeys?

Here are key takeaways for publishers:

1. Don’t separate e-commerce from editorial, embed purchase paths within useful content.

2. Use affiliate and checkout tools strategically, not as an afterthought.

3. Tie product links to audience intent, not advertiser pressure.

4. Align content calendars with commerce opportunities using your own data.

5. Maintain trust: product links must serve value, not just clicks.

Shoppable content is a practical starting point to diversify revenue without sacrificing editorial quality.

SODP POSTS

From M&S to Duolingo: Banter Between Brands on Social Media Gets People Buying – But There’s a Catch

The line between entertainment and advertising is increasingly blurred thanks to social media. People no longer just consume content, they experience it – laughing, sharing and commenting. And brands have caught on.

The days when people sat through a 30-second TV ad because they had no choice are long gone. Now they can quickly swipe past anything that feels too much like selling.

What tends to grab attention are things that feel spontaneous, real or funny. That’s where brand-to-brand banter comes in.

Instead of posting directly to consumers, brands increasingly engage with each other. They crack jokes, offer praise and even poke fun at competitors. Brands are becoming more human in their interactions – especially with each other.

Brand “banter” doesn’t feel like an ad (even though it has a commercial purpose). It can feel unscripted, human and weirdly fun, cutting through in a way traditional advertising can’t.

Our research shows that consumers are more likely to notice and engage with these interactions. The content feels less like marketing and more like shared digital culture. It can feel unexpected and entertaining, and invites audiences into a “moment”.

READ MORE

JOB BOARD

➡️ The Independent is looking to recruit an optimisation editor to join an exciting new team, working on the UK late shift who will help further expand one of the world's fastest-growing news brands in a small team of digital publishing experts. (Nottingham). SEE MORE

➡️The Baltimore Sun seeks an entrepreneurial, audience-savvy editor to help drive their emerging news coverage. This position helps guide coverage of traditional breaking news such as crime, fire, accidents, sports and more. (Baltimore). SEE MORE

COMMUNITY BUZZ

Industry News

➡️Search marketers assert that Google’s new long-form AI Overviews answers have become the very thing Google’s documentation advises publishers against: scraped content lacking originality or added value, at the expense of content creators who are seeing declining traffic. Why put the effort into writing great content if it’s going to be rewritten into a complete answer that removes the incentive to click the cited source? READ MORE 

➡️CMOs and CROs are in a tough position. Not only is there increasing pressure to connect ad budgets to business outcomes, but analytics professionals—the people relied upon to make the numbers work— are looking for better performance from their legacy measurement technology. In fact, in a recent study from BCG and Google, we found that only 40% of global organizations completely trust the performance of their current measurement solutions. READ MORE 

➡️Video is enjoying a golden age. Again. Supercharged by social platforms, video's power to distill complex issues in engaging, accessible formats is a hit with audiences. The Reuters Institute Digital News Report found two-thirds of audiences watch short form news videos weekly, and over half engage with longer form video. No wonder publishers are chasing opportunities. Take for example The Sun identifying video as a key driver for growth. READ MORE 

Social Media Discussions

➡️ Adam Gent on LinkedIn:

New Study: After 190 Days Since Last Crawl Googlebot Forgets

Let me explain 👇

Our data shows a clear progression in how Google forgets pages over time:

✅ 1-130 days: 90% of recently crawled pages remain "submitted and indexed"

❌ 131-190 days: 50-90% of not indexed pages shift to 'crawled - currently not indexed'

👻 190+ days: After 190 days without being crawled, 90% of pages are either "discovered - currently not indexed" or "URL is unknown to Google"

This timeline is fascinating. It takes Google about 4 months to actively remove a page from search results, but only 2 months for not indexed pages to be virtually forgotten (zero crawl priority).

What does this mean for your SEO strategy?

These states directly reflect the crawl priority of your pages in Googlebot's queue.

CONTINUE READING

These are the highlights for the last week.

Until next!

Vahe Arabian and the editorial team at SODP